Systems and methods for emphasizing a user&#39;s name

ABSTRACT

System and methods for processing audio signals are disclosed. In one implementation, a system may include at least one microphone configured to capture sounds from an environment of a user; and at least one processor. The processor may be programmed to receive at least one audio signal representative of at least part of the sounds captured by the microphone; identify at least one word in the at least one audio signal; and in response to identifying the at least one word, cause feedback to be provided the user.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims the benefit of priority of U.S. ProvisionalPatent Application No. 63/027,981, filed on May 21, 2020, the contentsof which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

BACKGROUND Technical Field

This disclosure generally relates to devices and methods for capturingand processing images and audio from an environment of a user, and usinginformation derived from captured images and audio.

Background Information

Today, technological advancements make it possible for wearable devicesto automatically capture images and audio, and store information that isassociated with the captured images and audio. Certain devices have beenused to digitally record aspects and personal experiences of one's lifein an exercise typically called “lifelogging.” Some individuals logtheir life so they can retrieve moments from past activities, forexample, social events, trips, etc. Lifelogging may also havesignificant benefits in other fields (e.g., business, fitness andhealthcare, and social research). Lifelogging devices, while useful fortracking daily activities, may be improved with capability to enhanceone's interaction in his environment with feedback and other advancedfunctionality based on the analysis of captured image and audio data.

Even though users can capture images and audio with their smartphonesand some smartphone applications can process the captured information,smartphones may not be the best platform for serving as lifeloggingapparatuses in view of their size and design. Lifelogging apparatusesshould be small and light, so they can be easily worn. Moreover, withimprovements in image capture devices, including wearable apparatuses,additional functionality may be provided to assist users in navigatingin and around an environment, identifying persons and objects theyencounter, and providing feedback to the users about their surroundingsand activities. Therefore, there is a need for apparatuses and methodsfor automatically capturing and processing images and audio to provideuseful information to users of the apparatuses, and for systems andmethods to process and leverage information gathered by the apparatuses.

SUMMARY

Embodiments consistent with the present disclosure provide devices andmethods for automatically capturing and processing images and audio froman environment of a user, and systems and methods for processinginformation related to images and audio captured from the environment ofthe user.

In an embodiment, a wearable apparatus for processing audio signals maycomprise: a microphone configured to capture sounds from an environmentof a user; and at least one processor. The at least one processor may beprogrammed to receive at least one audio signal representative of atleast part of the sounds captured by the microphone; identify at leastone word in the at least one audio signal; and in response toidentifying the at least one word, cause feedback to be provided theuser.

In another embodiment, a method for processing audio signals isdisclosed. The method may comprise receiving at least one audio signalrepresentative of sounds captured by at least one microphone from theenvironment of the user; identifying at least one word based on thereceived at least one audio signal; in response to identifying the atleast one word, providing feedback to the user.

In yet another embodiment, a method for processing audio signals isdisclosed. The method may comprise receiving at least one audio signalrepresentative of sounds captured by at least one microphone from theenvironment of the user; identifying at least one word based on thereceived at least one audio signal; determining a feedback condition inresponse to identifying the at least one word; and determining whetherto provide feedback to the user based on the feedback condition.

Consistent with other disclosed embodiments, non-transitorycomputer-readable storage media may store program instructions, whichare executed by at least one processor and perform any of the methodsdescribed herein.

The foregoing general description and the following detailed descriptionare exemplary and explanatory only and are not restrictive of theclaims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute apart of this disclosure, illustrate various disclosed embodiments. Inthe drawings:

FIG. 1A is a schematic illustration of an example of a user wearing awearable apparatus according to a disclosed embodiment.

FIG. 1B is a schematic illustration of an example of the user wearing awearable apparatus according to a disclosed embodiment.

FIG. 1C is a schematic illustration of an example of the user wearing awearable apparatus according to a disclosed embodiment.

FIG. 1D is a schematic illustration of an example of the user wearing awearable apparatus according to a disclosed embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration of an example system consistent withthe disclosed embodiments.

FIG. 3A is a schematic illustration of an example of the wearableapparatus shown in FIG. 1A.

FIG. 3B is an exploded view of the example of the wearable apparatusshown in FIG. 3A.

FIG. 4A-4K are schematic illustrations of an example of the wearableapparatus shown in FIG. 1B from various viewpoints.

FIG. 5A is a block diagram illustrating an example of the components ofa wearable apparatus according to a first embodiment.

FIG. 5B is a block diagram illustrating an example of the components ofa wearable apparatus according to a second embodiment.

FIG. 5C is a block diagram illustrating an example of the components ofa wearable apparatus according to a third embodiment.

FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a memory containingsoftware modules consistent with the present disclosure.

FIG. 7 is a schematic illustration of an embodiment of a wearableapparatus including an orientable image capture unit.

FIG. 8 is a schematic illustration of an embodiment of a wearableapparatus securable to an article of clothing consistent with thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 9 is a schematic illustration of a user wearing a wearableapparatus consistent with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 10 is a schematic illustration of an embodiment of a wearableapparatus securable to an article of clothing consistent with thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 11 is a schematic illustration of an embodiment of a wearableapparatus securable to an article of clothing consistent with thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 12 is a schematic illustration of an embodiment of a wearableapparatus securable to an article of clothing consistent with thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 13 is a schematic illustration of an embodiment of a wearableapparatus securable to an article of clothing consistent with thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 14 is a schematic illustration of an embodiment of a wearableapparatus securable to an article of clothing consistent with thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 15 is a schematic illustration of an embodiment of a wearableapparatus power unit including a power source.

FIG. 16 is a schematic illustration of an exemplary embodiment of awearable apparatus including protective circuitry.

FIG. 17A is a schematic illustration of an example of a user wearing anapparatus for a camera-based hearing aid device according to a disclosedembodiment.

FIG. 17B is a schematic illustration of an embodiment of an apparatussecurable to an article of clothing consistent with the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 18 is a schematic illustration showing an exemplary environment foruse of a camera-based hearing aid consistent with the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 19 is a flowchart showing an exemplary process for selectivelyamplifying sounds emanating from a detected look direction of a userconsistent with disclosed embodiments.

FIG. 20A is a schematic illustration showing an exemplary environmentfor use of a hearing aid with voice and/or image recognition consistentwith the present disclosure.

FIG. 20B illustrates an exemplary embodiment of an apparatus comprisingfacial and voice recognition components consistent with the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 21 is a flowchart showing an exemplary process for selectivelyamplifying audio signals associated with a voice of a recognizedindividual consistent with disclosed embodiments.

FIG. 22 is a flowchart showing an exemplary process for selectivelytransmitting audio signals associated with a voice of a recognized userconsistent with disclosed embodiments.

FIG. 23A is a schematic illustration showing an exemplary individualthat may be identified in the environment of a user consistent with thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 23B is a schematic illustration showing an exemplary individualthat may be identified in the environment of a user consistent with thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 23C illustrates an exemplary lip-tracking system consistent withthe disclosed embodiments.

FIG. 24 is a schematic illustration showing an exemplary environment foruse of a lip-tracking hearing aid consistent with the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 25 is a flowchart showing an exemplary process for selectivelyamplifying audio signals based on tracked lip movements consistent withdisclosed embodiments.

FIG. 26 is a schematic illustration showing an exemplary environment foruse of the disclosed systems and methods, consistent with the disclosedembodiments.

FIG. 27A illustrates an example of an audio signal in which one of thespeakers speaks the user's name, consistent with the disclosedembodiments.

FIG. 27B illustrates an example of an audio signal in which another ofthe speakers speaks the user's name, consistent with the disclosedembodiments.

FIG. 28 is a flowchart showing an example process for processing audiosignals, consistent with the disclosed embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following detailed description refers to the accompanying drawings.Wherever possible, the same reference numbers are used in the drawingsand the following description to refer to the same or similar parts.While several illustrative embodiments are described herein,modifications, adaptations and other implementations are possible. Forexample, substitutions, additions or modifications may be made to thecomponents illustrated in the drawings, and the illustrative methodsdescribed herein may be modified by substituting, reordering, removing,or adding steps to the disclosed methods. Accordingly, the followingdetailed description is not limited to the disclosed embodiments andexamples. Instead, the proper scope is defined by the appended claims.

FIG. 1A illustrates a user 100 wearing an apparatus 110 that isphysically connected (or integral) to glasses 130, consistent with thedisclosed embodiments. Glasses 130 may be prescription glasses,magnifying glasses, non-prescription glasses, safety glasses,sunglasses, etc. Additionally, in some embodiments, glasses 130 mayinclude parts of a frame and earpieces, nosepieces, etc., and one or nolenses. Thus, in some embodiments, glasses 130 may function primarily tosupport apparatus 110, and/or an augmented reality display device orother optical display device. In some embodiments, apparatus 110 mayinclude an image sensor (not shown in FIG. 1A) for capturing real-timeimage data of the field-of-view of user 100. The term “image data”includes any form of data retrieved from optical signals in thenear-infrared, infrared, visible, and ultraviolet spectrums. The imagedata may include video clips and/or photographs.

In some embodiments, apparatus 110 may communicate wirelessly or via awire with a computing device 120. In some embodiments, computing device120 may include, for example, a smartphone, or a tablet, or a dedicatedprocessing unit, which may be portable (e.g., can be carried in a pocketof user 100). Although shown in FIG. 1A as an external device, in someembodiments, computing device 120 may be provided as part of wearableapparatus 110 or glasses 130, whether integral thereto or mountedthereon. In some embodiments, computing device 120 may be included in anaugmented reality display device or optical head mounted displayprovided integrally or mounted to glasses 130. In other embodiments,computing device 120 may be provided as part of another wearable orportable apparatus of user 100 including a wrist-strap, amultifunctional watch, a button, a clip-on, etc. And in otherembodiments, computing device 120 may be provided as part of anothersystem, such as an on-board automobile computing or navigation system. Aperson skilled in the art can appreciate that different types ofcomputing devices and arrangements of devices may implement thefunctionality of the disclosed embodiments. Accordingly, in otherimplementations, computing device 120 may include a Personal Computer(PC), laptop, an Internet server, etc.

FIG. 1B illustrates user 100 wearing apparatus 110 that is physicallyconnected to a necklace 140, consistent with a disclosed embodiment.Such a configuration of apparatus 110 may be suitable for users that donot wear glasses some or all of the time. In this embodiment, user 100can easily wear apparatus 110, and take it off.

FIG. 1C illustrates user 100 wearing apparatus 110 that is physicallyconnected to a belt 150, consistent with a disclosed embodiment. Such aconfiguration of apparatus 110 may be designed as a belt buckle.Alternatively, apparatus 110 may include a clip for attaching to variousclothing articles, such as belt 150, or a vest, a pocket, a collar, acap or hat or other portion of a clothing article.

FIG. 1D illustrates user 100 wearing apparatus 110 that is physicallyconnected to a wrist strap 160, consistent with a disclosed embodiment.Although the aiming direction of apparatus 110, according to thisembodiment, may not match the field-of-view of user 100, apparatus 110may include the ability to identify a hand-related trigger based on thetracked eye movement of a user 100 indicating that user 100 is lookingin the direction of the wrist strap 160. Wrist strap 160 may alsoinclude an accelerometer, a gyroscope, or other sensor for determiningmovement or orientation of a user's 100 hand for identifying ahand-related trigger.

FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration of an exemplary system 200 includinga wearable apparatus 110, worn by user 100, and an optional computingdevice 120 and/or a server 250 capable of communicating with apparatus110 via a network 240, consistent with disclosed embodiments. In someembodiments, apparatus 110 may capture and analyze image data, identifya hand-related trigger present in the image data, and perform an actionand/or provide feedback to a user 100, based at least in part on theidentification of the hand-related trigger. In some embodiments,optional computing device 120 and/or server 250 may provide additionalfunctionality to enhance interactions of user 100 with his or herenvironment, as described in greater detail below.

According to the disclosed embodiments, apparatus 110 may include animage sensor system 220 for capturing real-time image data of thefield-of-view of user 100. In some embodiments, apparatus 110 may alsoinclude a processing unit 210 for controlling and performing thedisclosed functionality of apparatus 110, such as to control the captureof image data, analyze the image data, and perform an action and/oroutput a feedback based on a hand-related trigger identified in theimage data. According to the disclosed embodiments, a hand-relatedtrigger may include a gesture performed by user 100 involving a portionof a hand of user 100. Further, consistent with some embodiments, ahand-related trigger may include a wrist-related trigger. Additionally,in some embodiments, apparatus 110 may include a feedback outputtingunit 230 for producing an output of information to user 100.

As discussed above, apparatus 110 may include an image sensor 220 forcapturing image data. The term “image sensor” refers to a device capableof detecting and converting optical signals in the near-infrared,infrared, visible, and ultraviolet spectrums into electrical signals.The electrical signals may be used to form an image or a video stream(i.e. image data) based on the detected signal. The term “image data”includes any form of data retrieved from optical signals in thenear-infrared, infrared, visible, and ultraviolet spectrums. Examples ofimage sensors may include semiconductor charge-coupled devices (CCD),active pixel sensors in complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS),or N-type metal-oxide-semiconductor (NMOS, Live MOS). In some cases,image sensor 220 may be part of a camera included in apparatus 110.

Apparatus 110 may also include a processor 210 for controlling imagesensor 220 to capture image data and for analyzing the image dataaccording to the disclosed embodiments. As discussed in further detailbelow with respect to FIG. 5A, processor 210 may include a “processingdevice” for performing logic operations on one or more inputs of imagedata and other data according to stored or accessible softwareinstructions providing desired functionality. In some embodiments,processor 210 may also control feedback outputting unit 230 to providefeedback to user 100 including information based on the analyzed imagedata and the stored software instructions. As the term is used herein, a“processing device” may access memory where executable instructions arestored or, in some embodiments, a “processing device” itself may includeexecutable instructions (e.g., stored in memory included in theprocessing device).

In some embodiments, the information or feedback information provided touser 100 may include time information. The time information may includeany information related to a current time of day and, as describedfurther below, may be presented in any sensory perceptive manner. Insome embodiments, time information may include a current time of day ina preconfigured format (e.g., 2:30 pm or 14:30). Time information mayinclude the time in the user's current time zone (e.g., based on adetermined location of user 100), as well as an indication of the timezone and/or a time of day in another desired location. In someembodiments, time information may include a number of hours or minutesrelative to one or more predetermined times of day. For example, in someembodiments, time information may include an indication that three hoursand fifteen minutes remain until a particular hour (e.g., until 6:00pm), or some other predetermined time. Time information may also includea duration of time passed since the beginning of a particular activity,such as the start of a meeting or the start of a jog, or any otheractivity. In some embodiments, the activity may be determined based onanalyzed image data. In other embodiments, time information may alsoinclude additional information related to a current time and one or moreother routine, periodic, or scheduled events. For example, timeinformation may include an indication of the number of minutes remaininguntil the next scheduled event, as may be determined from a calendarfunction or other information retrieved from computing device 120 orserver 250, as discussed in further detail below.

Feedback outputting unit 230 may include one or more feedback systemsfor providing the output of information to user 100. In the disclosedembodiments, the audible or visual feedback may be provided via any typeof connected audible or visual system or both. Feedback of informationaccording to the disclosed embodiments may include audible feedback touser 100 (e.g., using a Bluetooth™ or other wired or wirelesslyconnected speaker, or a bone conduction headphone). Feedback outputtingunit 230 of some embodiments may additionally or alternatively produce avisible output of information to user 100, for example, as part of anaugmented reality display projected onto a lens of glasses 130 orprovided via a separate heads up display in communication with apparatus110, such as a display 260 provided as part of computing device 120,which may include an onboard automobile heads up display, an augmentedreality device, a virtual reality device, a smartphone, PC, table, etc.

The term “computing device” refers to a device including a processingunit and having computing capabilities. Some examples of computingdevice 120 include a PC, laptop, tablet, or other computing systems suchas an on-board computing system of an automobile, for example, eachconfigured to communicate directly with apparatus 110 or server 250 overnetwork 240. Another example of computing device 120 includes asmartphone having a display 260. In some embodiments, computing device120 may be a computing system configured particularly for apparatus 110,and may be provided integral to apparatus 110 or tethered thereto.Apparatus 110 can also connect to computing device 120 over network 240via any known wireless standard (e.g., Wi-Fi, Bluetooth®, etc.), as wellas near-filed capacitive coupling, and other short range wirelesstechniques, or via a wired connection. In an embodiment in whichcomputing device 120 is a smartphone, computing device 120 may have adedicated application installed therein. For example, user 100 may viewon display 260 data (e.g., images, video clips, extracted information,feedback information, etc.) that originate from or are triggered byapparatus 110. In addition, user 100 may select part of the data forstorage in server 250.

Network 240 may be a shared, public, or private network, may encompass awide area or local area, and may be implemented through any suitablecombination of wired and/or wireless communication networks. Network 240may further comprise an intranet or the Internet. In some embodiments,network 240 may include short range or near-field wireless communicationsystems for enabling communication between apparatus 110 and computingdevice 120 provided in close proximity to each other, such as on or neara user's person, for example. Apparatus 110 may establish a connectionto network 240 autonomously, for example, using a wireless module (e.g.,Wi-Fi, cellular). In some embodiments, apparatus 110 may use thewireless module when being connected to an external power source, toprolong battery life. Further, communication between apparatus 110 andserver 250 may be accomplished through any suitable communicationchannels, such as, for example, a telephone network, an extranet, anintranet, the Internet, satellite communications, off-linecommunications, wireless communications, transponder communications, alocal area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), and a virtualprivate network (VPN).

As shown in FIG. 2, apparatus 110 may transfer or receive data to/fromserver 250 via network 240. In the disclosed embodiments, the data beingreceived from server 250 and/or computing device 120 may includenumerous different types of information based on the analyzed imagedata, including information related to a commercial product, or aperson's identity, an identified landmark, and any other informationcapable of being stored in or accessed by server 250. In someembodiments, data may be received and transferred via computing device120. Server 250 and/or computing device 120 may retrieve informationfrom different data sources (e.g., a user specific database or a user'ssocial network account or other account, the Internet, and other managedor accessible databases) and provide information to apparatus 110related to the analyzed image data and a recognized trigger according tothe disclosed embodiments. In some embodiments, calendar-relatedinformation retrieved from the different data sources may be analyzed toprovide certain time information or a time-based context for providingcertain information based on the analyzed image data.

An example of wearable apparatus 110 incorporated with glasses 130according to some embodiments (as discussed in connection with FIG. 1A)is shown in greater detail in FIG. 3A. In some embodiments, apparatus110 may be associated with a structure (not shown in FIG. 3A) thatenables easy detaching and reattaching of apparatus 110 to glasses 130.In some embodiments, when apparatus 110 attaches to glasses 130, imagesensor 220 acquires a set aiming direction without the need fordirectional calibration. The set aiming direction of image sensor 220may substantially coincide with the field-of-view of user 100. Forexample, a camera associated with image sensor 220 may be installedwithin apparatus 110 in a predetermined angle in a position facingslightly downwards (e.g., 5-15 degrees from the horizon). Accordingly,the set aiming direction of image sensor 220 may substantially match thefield-of-view of user 100.

FIG. 3B is an exploded view of the components of the embodimentdiscussed regarding FIG. 3A. Attaching apparatus 110 to glasses 130 maytake place in the following way. Initially, a support 310 may be mountedon glasses 130 using a screw 320, in the side of support 310. Then,apparatus 110 may be clipped on support 310 such that it is aligned withthe field-of-view of user 100. The term “support” includes any device orstructure that enables detaching and reattaching of a device including acamera to a pair of glasses or to another object (e.g., a helmet).Support 310 may be made from plastic (e.g., polycarbonate), metal (e.g.,aluminum), or a combination of plastic and metal (e.g., carbon fibergraphite). Support 310 may be mounted on any kind of glasses (e.g.,eyeglasses, sunglasses, 3D glasses, safety glasses, etc.) using screws,bolts, snaps, or any fastening means used in the art.

In some embodiments, support 310 may include a quick release mechanismfor disengaging and reengaging apparatus 110. For example, support 310and apparatus 110 may include magnetic elements. As an alternativeexample, support 310 may include a male latch member and apparatus 110may include a female receptacle. In other embodiments, support 310 canbe an integral part of a pair of glasses, or sold separately andinstalled by an optometrist. For example, support 310 may be configuredfor mounting on the arms of glasses 130 near the frame front, but beforethe hinge. Alternatively, support 310 may be configured for mounting onthe bridge of glasses 130.

In some embodiments, apparatus 110 may be provided as part of a glassesframe 130, with or without lenses. Additionally, in some embodiments,apparatus 110 may be configured to provide an augmented reality displayprojected onto a lens of glasses 130 (if provided), or alternatively,may include a display for projecting time information, for example,according to the disclosed embodiments. Apparatus 110 may include theadditional display or alternatively, may be in communication with aseparately provided display system that may or may not be attached toglasses 130.

In some embodiments, apparatus 110 may be implemented in a form otherthan wearable glasses, as described above with respect to FIGS. 1B-1D,for example. FIG. 4A is a schematic illustration of an example of anadditional embodiment of apparatus 110 from a front viewpoint ofapparatus 110. Apparatus 110 includes an image sensor 220, a clip (notshown), a function button (not shown) and a hanging ring 410 forattaching apparatus 110 to, for example, necklace 140, as shown in FIG.1B. When apparatus 110 hangs on necklace 140, the aiming direction ofimage sensor 220 may not fully coincide with the field-of-view of user100, but the aiming direction would still correlate with thefield-of-view of user 100.

FIG. 4B is a schematic illustration of the example of a secondembodiment of apparatus 110, from a side orientation of apparatus 110.In addition to hanging ring 410, as shown in FIG. 4B, apparatus 110 mayfurther include a clip 420. User 100 can use clip 420 to attachapparatus 110 to a shirt or belt 150, as illustrated in FIG. 1C. Clip420 may provide an easy mechanism for disengaging and re-engagingapparatus 110 from different articles of clothing. In other embodiments,apparatus 110 may include a female receptacle for connecting with a malelatch of a car mount or universal stand.

In some embodiments, apparatus 110 includes a function button 430 forenabling user 100 to provide input to apparatus 110. Function button 430may accept different types of tactile input (e.g., a tap, a click, adouble-click, a long press, a right-to-left slide, a left-to-rightslide). In some embodiments, each type of input may be associated with adifferent action. For example, a tap may be associated with the functionof taking a picture, while a right-to-left slide may be associated withthe function of recording a video.

Apparatus 110 may be attached to an article of clothing (e.g., a shirt,a belt, pants, etc.), of user 100 at an edge of the clothing using aclip 431 as shown in FIG. 4C. For example, the body of apparatus 100 mayreside adjacent to the inside surface of the clothing with clip 431engaging with the outside surface of the clothing. In such anembodiment, as shown in FIG. 4C, the image sensor 220 (e.g., a camerafor visible light) may be protruding beyond the edge of the clothing.Alternatively, clip 431 may be engaging with the inside surface of theclothing with the body of apparatus 110 being adjacent to the outside ofthe clothing. In various embodiments, the clothing may be positionedbetween clip 431 and the body of apparatus 110.

An example embodiment of apparatus 110 is shown in FIG. 4D. Apparatus110 includes clip 431 which may include points (e.g., 432A and 432B) inclose proximity to a front surface 434 of a body 435 of apparatus 110.In an example embodiment, the distance between points 432A, 432B andfront surface 434 may be less than a typical thickness of a fabric ofthe clothing of user 100. For example, the distance between points 432A,432B and surface 434 may be less than a thickness of a tee-shirt, e.g.,less than a millimeter, less than 2 millimeters, less than 3millimeters, etc., or, in some cases, points 432A, 432B of clip 431 maytouch surface 434. In various embodiments, clip 431 may include a point433 that does not touch surface 434, allowing the clothing to beinserted between clip 431 and surface 434.

FIG. 4D shows schematically different views of apparatus 110 defined asa front view (F-view), a rearview (R-view), a top view (T-view), a sideview (S-view) and a bottom view (B-view). These views will be referredto when describing apparatus 110 in subsequent figures. FIG. 4D shows anexample embodiment where clip 431 is positioned at the same side ofapparatus 110 as sensor 220 (e.g., the front side of apparatus 110).Alternatively, clip 431 may be positioned at an opposite side ofapparatus 110 as sensor 220 (e.g., the rear side of apparatus 110). Invarious embodiments, apparatus 110 may include function button 430, asshown in FIG. 4D.

Various views of apparatus 110 are illustrated in FIGS. 4E through 4K.For example, FIG. 4E shows a view of apparatus 110 with an electricalconnection 441. Electrical connection 441 may be, for example, a USBport, that may be used to transfer data to/from apparatus 110 andprovide electrical power to apparatus 110. In an example embodiment,connection 441 may be used to charge a battery 442 schematically shownin FIG. 4E. FIG. 4F shows F-view of apparatus 110, including sensor 220and one or more microphones 443. In some embodiments, apparatus 110 mayinclude several microphones 443 facing outwards, wherein microphones 443are configured to obtain environmental sounds and sounds of variousspeakers communicating with user 100. FIG. 4G shows R-view of apparatus110. In some embodiments, microphone 444 may be positioned at the rearside of apparatus 110, as shown in FIG. 4G. Microphone 444 may be usedto detect an audio signal from user 100. It should be noted thatapparatus 110 may have microphones placed at any side (e.g., a frontside, a rear side, a left side, a right side, a top side, or a bottomside) of apparatus 110. In various embodiments, some microphones may beat a first side (e.g., microphones 443 may be at the front of apparatus110) and other microphones may be at a second side (e.g., microphone 444may be at the back side of apparatus 110).

FIGS. 4H and 41 show different sides of apparatus 110 (i.e., S-view ofapparatus 110) consisted with disclosed embodiments. For example, FIG.4H shows the location of sensor 220 and an example shape of clip 431.FIG. 4J shows T-view of apparatus 110, including function button 430,and FIG. 4K shows B-view of apparatus 110 with electrical connection441.

The example embodiments discussed above with respect to FIGS. 3A, 3B,4A, and 4B are not limiting. In some embodiments, apparatus 110 may beimplemented in any suitable configuration for performing the disclosedmethods. For example, referring back to FIG. 2, the disclosedembodiments may implement an apparatus 110 according to anyconfiguration including an image sensor 220 and a processor unit 210 toperform image analysis and for communicating with a feedback unit 230.

FIG. 5A is a block diagram illustrating the components of apparatus 110according to an example embodiment. As shown in FIG. 5A, and assimilarly discussed above, apparatus 110 includes an image sensor 220, amemory 550, a processor 210, a feedback outputting unit 230, a wirelesstransceiver 530, and a mobile power source 520. In other embodiments,apparatus 110 may also include buttons, other sensors such as amicrophone, and inertial measurements devices such as accelerometers,gyroscopes, magnetometers, temperature sensors, color sensors, lightsensors, etc. Apparatus 110 may further include a data port 570 and apower connection 510 with suitable interfaces for connecting with anexternal power source or an external device (not shown).

Processor 210, depicted in FIG. 5A, may include any suitable processingdevice. The term “processing device” includes any physical device havingan electric circuit that performs a logic operation on input or inputs.For example, processing device may include one or more integratedcircuits, microchips, microcontrollers, microprocessors, all or part ofa central processing unit (CPU), graphics processing unit (GPU), digitalsignal processor (DSP), field-programmable gate array (FPGA), or othercircuits suitable for executing instructions or performing logicoperations. The instructions executed by the processing device may, forexample, be pre-loaded into a memory integrated with or embedded intothe processing device or may be stored in a separate memory (e.g.,memory 550). Memory 550 may comprise a Random Access Memory (RAM), aRead-Only Memory (ROM), a hard disk, an optical disk, a magnetic medium,a flash memory, other permanent, fixed, or volatile memory, or any othermechanism capable of storing instructions.

Although, in the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 5A, apparatus 110includes one processing device (e.g., processor 210), apparatus 110 mayinclude more than one processing device. Each processing device may havea similar construction, or the processing devices may be of differingconstructions that are electrically connected or disconnected from eachother. For example, the processing devices may be separate circuits orintegrated in a single circuit. When more than one processing device isused, the processing devices may be configured to operate independentlyor collaboratively. The processing devices may be coupled electrically,magnetically, optically, acoustically, mechanically or by other meansthat permit them to interact.

In some embodiments, processor 210 may process a plurality of imagescaptured from the environment of user 100 to determine differentparameters related to capturing subsequent images. For example,processor 210 can determine, based on information derived from capturedimage data, a value for at least one of the following: an imageresolution, a compression ratio, a cropping parameter, frame rate, afocus point, an exposure time, an aperture size, and a lightsensitivity. The determined value may be used in capturing at least onesubsequent image. Additionally, processor 210 can detect imagesincluding at least one hand-related trigger in the environment of theuser and perform an action and/or provide an output of information to auser via feedback outputting unit 230.

In another embodiment, processor 210 can change the aiming direction ofimage sensor 220. For example, when apparatus 110 is attached with clip420, the aiming direction of image sensor 220 may not coincide with thefield-of-view of user 100. Processor 210 may recognize certainsituations from the analyzed image data and adjust the aiming directionof image sensor 220 to capture relevant image data. For example, in oneembodiment, processor 210 may detect an interaction with anotherindividual and sense that the individual is not fully in view, becauseimage sensor 220 is tilted down. Responsive thereto, processor 210 mayadjust the aiming direction of image sensor 220 to capture image data ofthe individual. Other scenarios are also contemplated where processor210 may recognize the need to adjust an aiming direction of image sensor220.

In some embodiments, processor 210 may communicate data tofeedback-outputting unit 230, which may include any device configured toprovide information to a user 100. Feedback outputting unit 230 may beprovided as part of apparatus 110 (as shown) or may be provided externalto apparatus 110 and communicatively coupled thereto.Feedback-outputting unit 230 may be configured to output visual ornonvisual feedback based on signals received from processor 210, such aswhen processor 210 recognizes a hand-related trigger in the analyzedimage data.

The term “feedback” refers to any output or information provided inresponse to processing at least one image in an environment. In someembodiments, as similarly described above, feedback may include anaudible or visible indication of time information, detected text ornumerals, the value of currency, a branded product, a person's identity,the identity of a landmark or other environmental situation or conditionincluding the street names at an intersection or the color of a trafficlight, etc., as well as other information associated with each of these.For example, in some embodiments, feedback may include additionalinformation regarding the amount of currency still needed to complete atransaction, information regarding the identified person, historicalinformation or times and prices of admission etc. of a detected landmarketc. In some embodiments, feedback may include an audible tone, atactile response, and/or information previously recorded by user 100.Feedback-outputting unit 230 may comprise appropriate components foroutputting acoustical and tactile feedback. For example,feedback-outputting unit 230 may comprise audio headphones, a hearingaid type device, a speaker, a bone conduction headphone, interfaces thatprovide tactile cues, vibrotactile stimulators, etc. In someembodiments, processor 210 may communicate signals with an externalfeedback outputting unit 230 via a wireless transceiver 530, a wiredconnection, or some other communication interface. In some embodiments,feedback outputting unit 230 may also include any suitable displaydevice for visually displaying information to user 100.

As shown in FIG. 5A, apparatus 110 includes memory 550. Memory 550 mayinclude one or more sets of instructions accessible to processor 210 toperform the disclosed methods, including instructions for recognizing ahand-related trigger in the image data. In some embodiments memory 550may store image data (e.g., images, videos) captured from theenvironment of user 100. In addition, memory 550 may store informationspecific to user 100, such as image representations of knownindividuals, favorite products, personal items, and calendar orappointment information, etc. In some embodiments, processor 210 maydetermine, for example, which type of image data to store based onavailable storage space in memory 550. In another embodiment, processor210 may extract information from the image data stored in memory 550.

As further shown in FIG. 5A, apparatus 110 includes mobile power source520. The term “mobile power source” includes any device capable ofproviding electrical power, which can be easily carried by hand (e.g.,mobile power source 520 may weigh less than a pound). The mobility ofthe power source enables user 100 to use apparatus 110 in a variety ofsituations. In some embodiments, mobile power source 520 may include oneor more batteries (e.g., nickel-cadmium batteries, nickel-metal hydridebatteries, and lithium-ion batteries) or any other type of electricalpower supply. In other embodiments, mobile power source 520 may berechargeable and contained within a casing that holds apparatus 110. Inyet other embodiments, mobile power source 520 may include one or moreenergy harvesting devices for converting ambient energy into electricalenergy (e.g., portable solar power units, human vibration units, etc.).

Mobile power source 520 may power one or more wireless transceivers(e.g., wireless transceiver 530 in FIG. 5A). The term “wirelesstransceiver” refers to any device configured to exchange transmissionsover an air interface by use of radio frequency, infrared frequency,magnetic field, or electric field. Wireless transceiver 530 may use anyknown standard to transmit and/or receive data (e.g., Wi-Fi, Bluetooth®,Bluetooth Smart, 802.15.4, or ZigBee). In some embodiments, wirelesstransceiver 530 may transmit data (e.g., raw image data, processed imagedata, extracted information) from apparatus 110 to computing device 120and/or server 250. Wireless transceiver 530 may also receive data fromcomputing device 120 and/or server 250. In other embodiments, wirelesstransceiver 530 may transmit data and instructions to an externalfeedback outputting unit 230.

FIG. 5B is a block diagram illustrating the components of apparatus 110according to another example embodiment. In some embodiments, apparatus110 includes a first image sensor 220 a, a second image sensor 220 b, amemory 550, a first processor 210 a, a second processor 210 b, afeedback outputting unit 230, a wireless transceiver 530, a mobile powersource 520, and a power connector 510. In the arrangement shown in FIG.5B, each of the image sensors may provide images in a different imageresolution, or face a different direction. Alternatively, each imagesensor may be associated with a different camera (e.g., a wide anglecamera, a narrow angle camera, an IR camera, etc.). In some embodiments,apparatus 110 can select which image sensor to use based on variousfactors. For example, processor 210 a may determine, based on availablestorage space in memory 550, to capture subsequent images in a certainresolution.

Apparatus 110 may operate in a first processing-mode and in a secondprocessing-mode, such that the first processing-mode may consume lesspower than the second processing-mode. For example, in the firstprocessing-mode, apparatus 110 may capture images and process thecaptured images to make real-time decisions based on an identifyinghand-related trigger, for example. In the second processing-mode,apparatus 110 may extract information from stored images in memory 550and delete images from memory 550. In some embodiments, mobile powersource 520 may provide more than fifteen hours of processing in thefirst processing-mode and about three hours of processing in the secondprocessing-mode. Accordingly, different processing-modes may allowmobile power source 520 to produce sufficient power for poweringapparatus 110 for various time periods (e.g., more than two hours, morethan four hours, more than ten hours, etc.).

In some embodiments, apparatus 110 may use first processor 210 a in thefirst processing-mode when powered by mobile power source 520, andsecond processor 210 b in the second processing-mode when powered byexternal power source 580 that is connectable via power connector 510.In other embodiments, apparatus 110 may determine, based on predefinedconditions, which processors or which processing modes to use. Apparatus110 may operate in the second processing-mode even when apparatus 110 isnot powered by external power source 580. For example, apparatus 110 maydetermine that it should operate in the second processing-mode whenapparatus 110 is not powered by external power source 580, if theavailable storage space in memory 550 for storing new image data islower than a predefined threshold.

Although one wireless transceiver is depicted in FIG. 5B, apparatus 110may include more than one wireless transceiver (e.g., two wirelesstransceivers). In an arrangement with more than one wirelesstransceiver, each of the wireless transceivers may use a differentstandard to transmit and/or receive data. In some embodiments, a firstwireless transceiver may communicate with server 250 or computing device120 using a cellular standard (e.g., LTE or GSM), and a second wirelesstransceiver may communicate with server 250 or computing device 120using a short-range standard (e.g., Wi-Fi or Bluetooth®). In someembodiments, apparatus 110 may use the first wireless transceiver whenthe wearable apparatus is powered by a mobile power source included inthe wearable apparatus, and use the second wireless transceiver when thewearable apparatus is powered by an external power source.

FIG. 5C is a block diagram illustrating the components of apparatus 110according to another example embodiment including computing device 120.In this embodiment, apparatus 110 includes an image sensor 220, a memory550 a, a first processor 210, a feedback-outputting unit 230, a wirelesstransceiver 530 a, a mobile power source 520, and a power connector 510.As further shown in FIG. 5C, computing device 120 includes a processor540, a feedback-outputting unit 545, a memory 550 b, a wirelesstransceiver 530 b, and a display 260. One example of computing device120 is a smartphone or tablet having a dedicated application installedtherein. In other embodiments, computing device 120 may include anyconfiguration such as an on-board automobile computing system, a PC, alaptop, and any other system consistent with the disclosed embodiments.In this example, user 100 may view feedback output in response toidentification of a hand-related trigger on display 260. Additionally,user 100 may view other data (e.g., images, video clips, objectinformation, schedule information, extracted information, etc.) ondisplay 260. In addition, user 100 may communicate with server 250 viacomputing device 120.

In some embodiments, processor 210 and processor 540 are configured toextract information from captured image data. The term “extractinginformation” includes any process by which information associated withobjects, individuals, locations, events, etc., is identified in thecaptured image data by any means known to those of ordinary skill in theart. In some embodiments, apparatus 110 may use the extractedinformation to send feedback or other real-time indications to feedbackoutputting unit 230 or to computing device 120. In some embodiments,processor 210 may identify in the image data the individual standing infront of user 100, and send computing device 120 the name of theindividual and the last time user 100 met the individual. In anotherembodiment, processor 210 may identify in the image data, one or morevisible triggers, including a hand-related trigger, and determinewhether the trigger is associated with a person other than the user ofthe wearable apparatus to selectively determine whether to perform anaction associated with the trigger. One such action may be to provide afeedback to user 100 via feedback-outputting unit 230 provided as partof (or in communication with) apparatus 110 or via a feedback unit 545provided as part of computing device 120. For example,feedback-outputting unit 545 may be in communication with display 260 tocause the display 260 to visibly output information. In someembodiments, processor 210 may identify in the image data a hand-relatedtrigger and send computing device 120 an indication of the trigger.Processor 540 may then process the received trigger information andprovide an output via feedback outputting unit 545 or display 260 basedon the hand-related trigger. In other embodiments, processor 540 maydetermine a hand-related trigger and provide suitable feedback similarto the above, based on image data received from apparatus 110. In someembodiments, processor 540 may provide instructions or otherinformation, such as environmental information to apparatus 110 based onan identified hand-related trigger.

In some embodiments, processor 210 may identify other environmentalinformation in the analyzed images, such as an individual standing infront user 100, and send computing device 120 information related to theanalyzed information such as the name of the individual and the lasttime user 100 met the individual. In a different embodiment, processor540 may extract statistical information from captured image data andforward the statistical information to server 250. For example, certaininformation regarding the types of items a user purchases, or thefrequency a user patronizes a particular merchant, etc. may bedetermined by processor 540. Based on this information, server 250 maysend computing device 120 coupons and discounts associated with theuser's preferences.

When apparatus 110 is connected or wirelessly connected to computingdevice 120, apparatus 110 may transmit at least part of the image datastored in memory 550 a for storage in memory 550 b. In some embodiments,after computing device 120 confirms that transferring the part of imagedata was successful, processor 540 may delete the part of the imagedata. The term “delete” means that the image is marked as ‘deleted’ andother image data may be stored instead of it, but does not necessarilymean that the image data was physically removed from the memory.

As will be appreciated by a person skilled in the art having the benefitof this disclosure, numerous variations and/or modifications may be madeto the disclosed embodiments. Not all components are essential for theoperation of apparatus 110. Any component may be located in anyappropriate apparatus and the components may be rearranged into avariety of configurations while providing the functionality of thedisclosed embodiments. For example, in some embodiments, apparatus 110may include a camera, a processor, and a wireless transceiver forsending data to another device. Therefore, the foregoing configurationsare examples and, regardless of the configurations discussed above,apparatus 110 can capture, store, and/or process images.

Further, the foregoing and following description refers to storingand/or processing images or image data. In the embodiments disclosedherein, the stored and/or processed images or image data may comprise arepresentation of one or more images captured by image sensor 220. Asthe term is used herein, a “representation” of an image (or image data)may include an entire image or a portion of an image. A representationof an image (or image data) may have the same resolution or a lowerresolution as the image (or image data), and/or a representation of animage (or image data) may be altered in some respect (e.g., becompressed, have a lower resolution, have one or more colors that arealtered, etc.).

For example, apparatus 110 may capture an image and store arepresentation of the image that is compressed as a .JPG file. Asanother example, apparatus 110 may capture an image in color, but storea black-and-white representation of the color image. As yet anotherexample, apparatus 110 may capture an image and store a differentrepresentation of the image (e.g., a portion of the image). For example,apparatus 110 may store a portion of an image that includes a face of aperson who appears in the image, but that does not substantially includethe environment surrounding the person. Similarly, apparatus 110 may,for example, store a portion of an image that includes a product thatappears in the image, but does not substantially include the environmentsurrounding the product. As yet another example, apparatus 110 may storea representation of an image at a reduced resolution (i.e., at aresolution that is of a lower value than that of the captured image).Storing representations of images may allow apparatus 110 to savestorage space in memory 550. Furthermore, processing representations ofimages may allow apparatus 110 to improve processing efficiency and/orhelp to preserve battery life.

In addition to the above, in some embodiments, any one of apparatus 110or computing device 120, via processor 210 or 540, may further processthe captured image data to provide additional functionality to recognizeobjects and/or gestures and/or other information in the captured imagedata. In some embodiments, actions may be taken based on the identifiedobjects, gestures, or other information. In some embodiments, processor210 or 540 may identify in the image data, one or more visible triggers,including a hand-related trigger, and determine whether the trigger isassociated with a person other than the user to determine whether toperform an action associated with the trigger.

Some embodiments of the present disclosure may include an apparatussecurable to an article of clothing of a user. Such an apparatus mayinclude two portions, connectable by a connector. A capturing unit maybe designed to be worn on the outside of a user's clothing, and mayinclude an image sensor for capturing images of a user's environment.The capturing unit may be connected to or connectable to a power unit,which may be configured to house a power source and a processing device.The capturing unit may be a small device including a camera or otherdevice for capturing images. The capturing unit may be designed to beinconspicuous and unobtrusive, and may be configured to communicate witha power unit concealed by a user's clothing. The power unit may includebulkier aspects of the system, such as transceiver antennas, at leastone battery, a processing device, etc. In some embodiments,communication between the capturing unit and the power unit may beprovided by a data cable included in the connector, while in otherembodiments, communication may be wirelessly achieved between thecapturing unit and the power unit. Some embodiments may permitalteration of the orientation of an image sensor of the capture unit,for example to better capture images of interest.

FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a memory containingsoftware modules consistent with the present disclosure. Included inmemory 550 are orientation identification module 601, orientationadjustment module 602, and motion tracking module 603. Modules 601, 602,603 may contain software instructions for execution by at least oneprocessing device, e.g., processor 210, included with a wearableapparatus. Orientation identification module 601, orientation adjustmentmodule 602, and motion tracking module 603 may cooperate to provideorientation adjustment for a capturing unit incorporated into wirelessapparatus 110.

FIG. 7 illustrates an exemplary capturing unit 710 including anorientation adjustment unit 705. Orientation adjustment unit 705 may beconfigured to permit the adjustment of image sensor 220. As illustratedin FIG. 7, orientation adjustment unit 705 may include an eye-ball typeadjustment mechanism. In alternative embodiments, orientation adjustmentunit 705 may include gimbals, adjustable stalks, pivotable mounts, andany other suitable unit for adjusting an orientation of image sensor220.

Image sensor 220 may be configured to be movable with the head of user100 in such a manner that an aiming direction of image sensor 220substantially coincides with a field of view of user 100. For example,as described above, a camera associated with image sensor 220 may beinstalled within capturing unit 710 at a predetermined angle in aposition facing slightly upwards or downwards, depending on an intendedlocation of capturing unit 710. Accordingly, the set aiming direction ofimage sensor 220 may match the field-of-view of user 100. In someembodiments, processor 210 may change the orientation of image sensor220 using image data provided from image sensor 220. For example,processor 210 may recognize that a user is reading a book and determinethat the aiming direction of image sensor 220 is offset from the text.That is, because the words in the beginning of each line of text are notfully in view, processor 210 may determine that image sensor 220 istilted in the wrong direction. Responsive thereto, processor 210 mayadjust the aiming direction of image sensor 220.

Orientation identification module 601 may be configured to identify anorientation of an image sensor 220 of capturing unit 710. An orientationof an image sensor 220 may be identified, for example, by analysis ofimages captured by image sensor 220 of capturing unit 710, by tilt orattitude sensing devices within capturing unit 710, and by measuring arelative direction of orientation adjustment unit 705 with respect tothe remainder of capturing unit 710.

Orientation adjustment module 602 may be configured to adjust anorientation of image sensor 220 of capturing unit 710. As discussedabove, image sensor 220 may be mounted on an orientation adjustment unit705 configured for movement. Orientation adjustment unit 705 may beconfigured for rotational and/or lateral movement in response tocommands from orientation adjustment module 602. In some embodimentsorientation adjustment unit 705 may be adjust an orientation of imagesensor 220 via motors, electromagnets, permanent magnets, and/or anysuitable combination thereof.

In some embodiments, monitoring module 603 may be provided forcontinuous monitoring. Such continuous monitoring may include tracking amovement of at least a portion of an object included in one or moreimages captured by the image sensor. For example, in one embodiment,apparatus 110 may track an object as long as the object remainssubstantially within the field-of-view of image sensor 220. Inadditional embodiments, monitoring module 603 may engage orientationadjustment module 602 to instruct orientation adjustment unit 705 tocontinually orient image sensor 220 towards an object of interest. Forexample, in one embodiment, monitoring module 603 may cause image sensor220 to adjust an orientation to ensure that a certain designated object,for example, the face of a particular person, remains within thefield-of view of image sensor 220, even as that designated object movesabout. In another embodiment, monitoring module 603 may continuouslymonitor an area of interest included in one or more images captured bythe image sensor. For example, a user may be occupied by a certain task,for example, typing on a laptop, while image sensor 220 remains orientedin a particular direction and continuously monitors a portion of eachimage from a series of images to detect a trigger or other event. Forexample, image sensor 210 may be oriented towards a piece of laboratoryequipment and monitoring module 603 may be configured to monitor astatus light on the laboratory equipment for a change in status, whilethe user's attention is otherwise occupied.

In some embodiments consistent with the present disclosure, capturingunit 710 may include a plurality of image sensors 220. The plurality ofimage sensors 220 may each be configured to capture different imagedata. For example, when a plurality of image sensors 220 are provided,the image sensors 220 may capture images having different resolutions,may capture wider or narrower fields of view, and may have differentlevels of magnification. Image sensors 220 may be provided with varyinglenses to permit these different configurations. In some embodiments, aplurality of image sensors 220 may include image sensors 220 havingdifferent orientations. Thus, each of the plurality of image sensors 220may be pointed in a different direction to capture different images. Thefields of view of image sensors 220 may be overlapping in someembodiments. The plurality of image sensors 220 may each be configuredfor orientation adjustment, for example, by being paired with an imageadjustment unit 705. In some embodiments, monitoring module 603, oranother module associated with memory 550, may be configured toindividually adjust the orientations of the plurality of image sensors220 as well as to turn each of the plurality of image sensors 220 on oroff as may be required. In some embodiments, monitoring an object orperson captured by an image sensor 220 may include tracking movement ofthe object across the fields of view of the plurality of image sensors220.

Embodiments consistent with the present disclosure may includeconnectors configured to connect a capturing unit and a power unit of awearable apparatus. Capturing units consistent with the presentdisclosure may include least one image sensor configured to captureimages of an environment of a user. Power units consistent with thepresent disclosure may be configured to house a power source and/or atleast one processing device. Connectors consistent with the presentdisclosure may be configured to connect the capturing unit and the powerunit, and may be configured to secure the apparatus to an article ofclothing such that the capturing unit is positioned over an outersurface of the article of clothing and the power unit is positionedunder an inner surface of the article of clothing. Exemplary embodimentsof capturing units, connectors, and power units consistent with thedisclosure are discussed in further detail with respect to FIGS. 8-14.

FIG. 8 is a schematic illustration of an embodiment of wearableapparatus 110 securable to an article of clothing consistent with thepresent disclosure. As illustrated in FIG. 8, capturing unit 710 andpower unit 720 may be connected by a connector 730 such that capturingunit 710 is positioned on one side of an article of clothing 750 andpower unit 720 is positioned on the opposite side of the clothing 750.In some embodiments, capturing unit 710 may be positioned over an outersurface of the article of clothing 750 and power unit 720 may be locatedunder an inner surface of the article of clothing 750. The power unit720 may be configured to be placed against the skin of a user.

Capturing unit 710 may include an image sensor 220 and an orientationadjustment unit 705 (as illustrated in FIG. 7). Power unit 720 mayinclude mobile power source 520 and processor 210. Power unit 720 mayfurther include any combination of elements previously discussed thatmay be a part of wearable apparatus 110, including, but not limited to,wireless transceiver 530, feedback outputting unit 230, memory 550, anddata port 570.

Connector 730 may include a clip 715 or other mechanical connectiondesigned to clip or attach capturing unit 710 and power unit 720 to anarticle of clothing 750 as illustrated in FIG. 8. As illustrated, clip715 may connect to each of capturing unit 710 and power unit 720 at aperimeter thereof, and may wrap around an edge of the article ofclothing 750 to affix the capturing unit 710 and power unit 720 inplace. Connector 730 may further include a power cable 760 and a datacable 770. Power cable 760 may be capable of conveying power from mobilepower source 520 to image sensor 220 of capturing unit 710. Power cable760 may also be configured to provide power to any other elements ofcapturing unit 710, e.g., orientation adjustment unit 705. Data cable770 may be capable of conveying captured image data from image sensor220 in capturing unit 710 to processor 800 in the power unit 720. Datacable 770 may be further capable of conveying additional data betweencapturing unit 710 and processor 800, e.g., control instructions fororientation adjustment unit 705.

FIG. 9 is a schematic illustration of a user 100 wearing a wearableapparatus 110 consistent with an embodiment of the present disclosure.As illustrated in FIG. 9, capturing unit 710 is located on an exteriorsurface of the clothing 750 of user 100. Capturing unit 710 is connectedto power unit 720 (not seen in this illustration) via connector 730,which wraps around an edge of clothing 750.

In some embodiments, connector 730 may include a flexible printedcircuit board (PCB). FIG. 10 illustrates an exemplary embodiment whereinconnector 730 includes a flexible printed circuit board 765. Flexibleprinted circuit board 765 may include data connections and powerconnections between capturing unit 710 and power unit 720. Thus, in someembodiments, flexible printed circuit board 765 may serve to replacepower cable 760 and data cable 770. In alternative embodiments, flexibleprinted circuit board 765 may be included in addition to at least one ofpower cable 760 and data cable 770. In various embodiments discussedherein, flexible printed circuit board 765 may be substituted for, orincluded in addition to, power cable 760 and data cable 770.

FIG. 11 is a schematic illustration of another embodiment of a wearableapparatus securable to an article of clothing consistent with thepresent disclosure. As illustrated in FIG. 11, connector 730 may becentrally located with respect to capturing unit 710 and power unit 720.Central location of connector 730 may facilitate affixing apparatus 110to clothing 750 through a hole in clothing 750 such as, for example, abutton-hole in an existing article of clothing 750 or a specialty holein an article of clothing 750 designed to accommodate wearable apparatus110.

FIG. 12 is a schematic illustration of still another embodiment ofwearable apparatus 110 securable to an article of clothing. Asillustrated in FIG. 12, connector 730 may include a first magnet 731 anda second magnet 732. First magnet 731 and second magnet 732 may securecapturing unit 710 to power unit 720 with the article of clothingpositioned between first magnet 731 and second magnet 732. Inembodiments including first magnet 731 and second magnet 732, powercable 760 and data cable 770 may also be included. In these embodiments,power cable 760 and data cable 770 may be of any length, and may providea flexible power and data connection between capturing unit 710 andpower unit 720. Embodiments including first magnet 731 and second magnet732 may further include a flexible PCB 765 connection in addition to orinstead of power cable 760 and/or data cable 770. In some embodiments,first magnet 731 or second magnet 732 may be replaced by an objectcomprising a metal material.

FIG. 13 is a schematic illustration of yet another embodiment of awearable apparatus 110 securable to an article of clothing. FIG. 13illustrates an embodiment wherein power and data may be wirelesslytransferred between capturing unit 710 and power unit 720. Asillustrated in FIG. 13, first magnet 731 and second magnet 732 may beprovided as connector 730 to secure capturing unit 710 and power unit720 to an article of clothing 750. Power and/or data may be transferredbetween capturing unit 710 and power unit 720 via any suitable wirelesstechnology, for example, magnetic and/or capacitive coupling, near fieldcommunication technologies, radiofrequency transfer, and any otherwireless technology suitable for transferring data and/or power acrossshort distances.

FIG. 14 illustrates still another embodiment of wearable apparatus 110securable to an article of clothing 750 of a user. As illustrated inFIG. 14, connector 730 may include features designed for a contact fit.For example, capturing unit 710 may include a ring 733 with a hollowcenter having a diameter slightly larger than a disk-shaped protrusion734 located on power unit 720. When pressed together with fabric of anarticle of clothing 750 between them, disk-shaped protrusion 734 may fittightly inside ring 733, securing capturing unit 710 to power unit 720.FIG. 14 illustrates an embodiment that does not include any cabling orother physical connection between capturing unit 710 and power unit 720.In this embodiment, capturing unit 710 and power unit 720 may transferpower and data wirelessly. In alternative embodiments, capturing unit710 and power unit 720 may transfer power and data via at least one ofcable 760, data cable 770, and flexible printed circuit board 765.

FIG. 15 illustrates another aspect of power unit 720 consistent withembodiments described herein. Power unit 720 may be configured to bepositioned directly against the user's skin. To facilitate suchpositioning, power unit 720 may further include at least one surfacecoated with a biocompatible material 740. Biocompatible materials 740may include materials that will not negatively react with the skin ofthe user when worn against the skin for extended periods of time. Suchmaterials may include, for example, silicone, PTFE, kapton, polyimide,titanium, nitinol, platinum, and others. Also as illustrated in FIG. 15,power unit 720 may be sized such that an inner volume of the power unitis substantially filled by mobile power source 520. That is, in someembodiments, the inner volume of power unit 720 may be such that thevolume does not accommodate any additional components except for mobilepower source 520. In some embodiments, mobile power source 520 may takeadvantage of its close proximity to the skin of user's skin. Forexample, mobile power source 520 may use the Peltier effect to producepower and/or charge the power source.

In further embodiments, an apparatus securable to an article of clothingmay further include protective circuitry associated with power source520 housed in in power unit 720. FIG. 16 illustrates an exemplaryembodiment including protective circuitry 775. As illustrated in FIG.16, protective circuitry 775 may be located remotely with respect topower unit 720. In alternative embodiments, protective circuitry 775 mayalso be located in capturing unit 710, on flexible printed circuit board765, or in power unit 720.

Protective circuitry 775 may be configured to protect image sensor 220and/or other elements of capturing unit 710 from potentially dangerouscurrents and/or voltages produced by mobile power source 520. Protectivecircuitry 775 may include passive components such as capacitors,resistors, diodes, inductors, etc., to provide protection to elements ofcapturing unit 710. In some embodiments, protective circuitry 775 mayalso include active components, such as transistors, to provideprotection to elements of capturing unit 710. For example, in someembodiments, protective circuitry 775 may comprise one or more resistorsserving as fuses. Each fuse may comprise a wire or strip that melts(thereby braking a connection between circuitry of image capturing unit710 and circuitry of power unit 720) when current flowing through thefuse exceeds a predetermined limit (e.g., 500 milliamps, 900 milliamps,1 amp, 1.1 amps, 2 amp, 2.1 amps, 3 amps, etc.) Any or all of thepreviously described embodiments may incorporate protective circuitry775.

In some embodiments, the wearable apparatus may transmit data to acomputing device (e.g., a smartphone, tablet, watch, computer, etc.)over one or more networks via any known wireless standard (e.g.,cellular, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth®, etc.), or via near-filed capacitivecoupling, other short range wireless techniques, or via a wiredconnection. Similarly, the wearable apparatus may receive data from thecomputing device over one or more networks via any known wirelessstandard (e.g., cellular, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth®, etc.), or via near-filedcapacitive coupling, other short range wireless techniques, or via awired connection. The data transmitted to the wearable apparatus and/orreceived by the wireless apparatus may include images, portions ofimages, identifiers related to information appearing in analyzed imagesor associated with analyzed audio, or any other data representing imageand/or audio data. For example, an image may be analyzed and anidentifier related to an activity occurring in the image may betransmitted to the computing device (e.g., the “paired device”). In theembodiments described herein, the wearable apparatus may process imagesand/or audio locally (on board the wearable apparatus) and/or remotely(via a computing device). Further, in the embodiments described herein,the wearable apparatus may transmit data related to the analysis ofimages and/or audio to a computing device for further analysis, display,and/or transmission to another device (e.g., a paired device). Further,a paired device may execute one or more applications (apps) to process,display, and/or analyze data (e.g., identifiers, text, images, audio,etc.) received from the wearable apparatus.

Some of the disclosed embodiments may involve systems, devices, methods,and software products for determining at least one keyword. For example,at least one keyword may be determined based on data collected byapparatus 110. At least one search query may be determined based on theat least one keyword. The at least one search query may be transmittedto a search engine.

In some embodiments, at least one keyword may be determined based on atleast one or more images captured by image sensor 220. In some cases,the at least one keyword may be selected from a keywords pool stored inmemory. In some cases, optical character recognition (OCR) may beperformed on at least one image captured by image sensor 220, and the atleast one keyword may be determined based on the OCR result. In somecases, at least one image captured by image sensor 220 may be analyzedto recognize: a person, an object, a location, a scene, and so forth.Further, the at least one keyword may be determined based on therecognized person, object, location, scene, etc. For example, the atleast one keyword may comprise: a person's name, an object's name, aplace's name, a date, a sport team's name, a movie's name, a book'sname, and so forth.

In some embodiments, at least one keyword may be determined based on theuser's behavior. The user's behavior may be determined based on ananalysis of the one or more images captured by image sensor 220. In someembodiments, at least one keyword may be determined based on activitiesof a user and/or other person. The one or more images captured by imagesensor 220 may be analyzed to identify the activities of the user and/orthe other person who appears in one or more images captured by imagesensor 220. In some embodiments, at least one keyword may be determinedbased on at least one or more audio segments captured by apparatus 110.In some embodiments, at least one keyword may be determined based on atleast GPS information associated with the user. In some embodiments, atleast one keyword may be determined based on at least the current timeand/or date.

In some embodiments, at least one search query may be determined basedon at least one keyword. In some cases, the at least one search querymay comprise the at least one keyword. In some cases, the at least onesearch query may comprise the at least one keyword and additionalkeywords provided by the user. In some cases, the at least one searchquery may comprise the at least one keyword and one or more images, suchas images captured by image sensor 220. In some cases, the at least onesearch query may comprise the at least one keyword and one or more audiosegments, such as audio segments captured by apparatus 110.

In some embodiments, the at least one search query may be transmitted toa search engine. In some embodiments, search results provided by thesearch engine in response to the at least one search query may beprovided to the user. In some embodiments, the at least one search querymay be used to access a database.

For example, in one embodiment, the keywords may include a name of atype of food, such as quinoa, or a brand name of a food product; and thesearch will output information related to desirable quantities ofconsumption, facts about the nutritional profile, and so forth. Inanother example, in one embodiment, the keywords may include a name of arestaurant, and the search will output information related to therestaurant, such as a menu, opening hours, reviews, and so forth. Thename of the restaurant may be obtained using OCR on an image of signage,using GPS information, and so forth. In another example, in oneembodiment, the keywords may include a name of a person, and the searchwill provide information from a social network profile of the person.The name of the person may be obtained using OCR on an image of a nametag attached to the person's shirt, using face recognition algorithms,and so forth. In another example, in one embodiment, the keywords mayinclude a name of a book, and the search will output information relatedto the book, such as reviews, sales statistics, information regardingthe author of the book, and so forth. In another example, in oneembodiment, the keywords may include a name of a movie, and the searchwill output information related to the movie, such as reviews, boxoffice statistics, information regarding the cast of the movie, showtimes, and so forth. In another example, in one embodiment, the keywordsmay include a name of a sport team, and the search will outputinformation related to the sport team, such as statistics, latestresults, future schedule, information regarding the players of the sportteam, and so forth. For example, the name of the sport team may beobtained using audio recognition algorithms.

Camera-Based Directional Hearing Aid

As discussed previously, the disclosed embodiments may include providingfeedback, such as acoustical and tactile feedback, to one or moreauxiliary devices in response to processing at least one image in anenvironment. In some embodiments, the auxiliary device may be anearpiece or other device used to provide auditory feedback to the user,such as a hearing aid. Traditional hearing aids often use microphones toamplify sounds in the user's environment. These traditional systems,however, are often unable to distinguish between sounds that may be ofparticular importance to the wearer of the device, or may do so on alimited basis. Using the systems and methods of the disclosedembodiments, various improvements to traditional hearing aids areprovided, as described in detail below.

In one embodiment, a camera-based directional hearing aid may beprovided for selectively amplifying sounds based on a look direction ofa user. The hearing aid may communicate with an image capturing device,such as apparatus 110, to determine the look direction of the user. Thislook direction may be used to isolate and/or selectively amplify soundsreceived from that direction (e.g., sounds from individuals in theuser's look direction, etc.). Sounds received from directions other thanthe user's look direction may be suppressed, attenuated, filtered or thelike.

FIG. 17A is a schematic illustration of an example of a user 100 wearingan apparatus 110 for a camera-based hearing interface device 1710according to a disclosed embodiment. User 100 may wear apparatus 110that is physically connected to a shirt or other piece of clothing ofuser 100, as shown. Consistent with the disclosed embodiments, apparatus110 may be positioned in other locations, as described previously. Forexample, apparatus 110 may be physically connected to a necklace, abelt, glasses, a wrist strap, a button, etc. Apparatus 110 may beconfigured to communicate with a hearing interface device such ashearing interface device 1710. Such communication may be through a wiredconnection, or may be made wirelessly (e.g., using a Bluetooth™, NFC, orforms of wireless communication). In some embodiments, one or moreadditional devices may also be included, such as computing device 120.Accordingly, one or more of the processes or functions described hereinwith respect to apparatus 110 or processor 210 may be performed bycomputing device 120 and/or processor 540.

Hearing interface device 1710 may be any device configured to provideaudible feedback to user 100. Hearing interface device 1710 maycorrespond to feedback outputting unit 230, described above, andtherefore any descriptions of feedback outputting unit 230 may alsoapply to hearing interface device 1710. In some embodiments, hearinginterface device 1710 may be separate from feedback outputting unit 230and may be configured to receive signals from feedback outputting unit230. As shown in FIG. 17A, hearing interface device 1710 may be placedin one or both ears of user 100, similar to traditional hearinginterface devices. Hearing interface device 1710 may be of variousstyles, including in-the-canal, completely-in-canal, in-the-ear,behind-the-ear, on-the-ear, receiver-in-canal, open fit, or variousother styles. Hearing interface device 1710 may include one or morespeakers for providing audible feedback to user 100, microphones fordetecting sounds in the environment of user 100, internal electronics,processors, memories, etc. In some embodiments, in addition to orinstead of a microphone, hearing interface device 1710 may comprise oneor more communication units, and in particular one or more receivers forreceiving signals from apparatus 110 and transferring the signals touser 100.

Hearing interface device 1710 may have various other configurations orplacement locations. In some embodiments, hearing interface device 1710may comprise a bone conduction headphone 1711, as shown in FIG. 17A.Bone conduction headphone 1711 may be surgically implanted and mayprovide audible feedback to user 100 through bone conduction of soundvibrations to the inner ear. Hearing interface device 1710 may alsocomprise one or more headphones (e.g., wireless headphones, over-earheadphones, etc.) or a portable speaker carried or worn by user 100. Insome embodiments, hearing interface device 1710 may be integrated intoother devices, such as a Bluetooth™ headset of the user, glasses, ahelmet (e.g., motorcycle helmets, bicycle helmets, etc.), a hat, etc.

Apparatus 110 may be configured to determine a user look direction 1750of user 100. In some embodiments, user look direction 1750 may betracked by monitoring a direction of the chin, or another body part orface part of user 100 relative to an optical axis of a camera sensor1751. Apparatus 110 may be configured to capture one or more images ofthe surrounding environment of user, for example, using image sensor220. The captured images may include a representation of a chin of user100, which may be used to determine user look direction 1750. Processor210 (and/or processors 210 a and 210 b) may be configured to analyze thecaptured images and detect the chin or another part of user 100 usingvarious image detection or processing algorithms (e.g., usingconvolutional neural networks (CNN), scale-invariant feature transform(SIFT), histogram of oriented gradients (HOG) features, or othertechniques). Based on the detected representation of a chin of user 100,look direction 1750 may be determined. Look direction 1750 may bedetermined in part by comparing the detected representation of a chin ofuser 100 to an optical axis of a camera sensor 1751. For example, theoptical axis 1751 may be known or fixed in each image and processor 210may determine look direction 1750 by comparing a representative angle ofthe chin of user 100 to the direction of optical axis 1751. While theprocess is described using a representation of a chin of user 100,various other features may be detected for determining user lookdirection 1750, including the user's face, nose, eyes, hand, etc.

In other embodiments, user look direction 1750 may be aligned moreclosely with the optical axis 1751. For example, as discussed above,apparatus 110 may be affixed to a pair of glasses of user 100, as shownin FIG. 1A. In this embodiment, user look direction 1750 may be the sameas or close to the direction of optical axis 1751. Accordingly, userlook direction 1750 may be determined or approximated based on the viewof image sensor 220.

FIG. 17B is a schematic illustration of an embodiment of an apparatussecurable to an article of clothing consistent with the presentdisclosure. Apparatus 110 may be securable to a piece of clothing, suchas the shirt of user 110, as shown in FIG. 17A. Apparatus 110 may besecurable to other articles of clothing, such as a belt or pants of user100, as discussed above. Apparatus 110 may have one or more cameras1730, which may correspond to image sensor 220. Camera 1730 may beconfigured to capture images of the surrounding environment of user 100.In some embodiments, camera 1730 may be configured to detect arepresentation of a chin of the user in the same images capturing thesurrounding environment of the user, which may be used for otherfunctions described in this disclosure. In other embodiments camera 1730may be an auxiliary or separate camera dedicated to determining userlook direction 1750.

Apparatus 110 may further comprise one or more microphones 1720 forcapturing sounds from the environment of user 100. Microphone 1720 mayalso be configured to determine a directionality of sounds in theenvironment of user 100. For example, microphone 1720 may comprise oneor more directional microphones, which may be more sensitive to pickingup sounds in certain directions. For example, microphone 1720 maycomprise a unidirectional microphone, designed to pick up sound from asingle direction or small range of directions. Microphone 1720 may alsocomprise a cardioid microphone, which may be sensitive to sounds fromthe front and sides. Microphone 1720 may also include a microphonearray, which may comprise additional microphones, such as microphone1721 on the front of apparatus 110, or microphone 1722, placed on theside of apparatus 110. In some embodiments, microphone 1720 may be amulti-port microphone for capturing multiple audio signals. Themicrophones shown in FIG. 17B are by way of example only, and anysuitable number, configuration, or location of microphones may beutilized. Processor 210 may be configured to distinguish sounds withinthe environment of user 100 and determine an approximate directionalityof each sound. For example, using an array of microphones 1720,processor 210 may compare the relative timing or amplitude of anindividual sound among the microphones 1720 to determine adirectionality relative to apparatus 100.

As a preliminary step before other audio analysis operations, the soundcaptured from an environment of a user may be classified using any audioclassification technique. For example, the sound may be classified intosegments containing music, tones, laughter, screams, or the like.Indications of the respective segments may be logged in a database andmay prove highly useful for life logging applications. As one example,the logged information may enable the system to to retrieve and/ordetermine a mood when the user met another person. Additionally, suchprocessing is relatively fast and efficient, and does not requiresignificant computing resources, and transmitting the information to adestination does not require significant bandwidth. Moreover, oncecertain parts of the audio are classified as non-speech, more computingresources may be available for processing the other segments.

Based on the determined user look direction 1750, processor 210 mayselectively condition or amplify sounds from a region associated withuser look direction 1750. FIG. 18 is a schematic illustration showing anexemplary environment for use of a camera-based hearing aid consistentwith the present disclosure. Microphone 1720 may detect one or moresounds 1820, 1821, and 1822 within the environment of user 100. Based onuser look direction 1750, determined by processor 210, a region 1830associated with user look direction 1750 may be determined. As shown inFIG. 18, region 1830 may be defined by a cone or range of directionsbased on user look direction 1750. The range of angles may be defined byan angle, θ, as shown in FIG. 18. The angle, θ, may be any suitableangle for defining a range for conditioning sounds within theenvironment of user 100 (e.g., 10 degrees, 20 degrees, 45 degrees).

Processor 210 may be configured to cause selective conditioning ofsounds in the environment of user 100 based on region 1830. Theconditioned audio signal may be transmitted to hearing interface device1710, and thus may provide user 100 with audible feedback correspondingto the look direction of the user. For example, processor 210 maydetermine that sound 1820 (which may correspond to the voice of anindividual 1810, or to noise for example) is within region 1830.Processor 210 may then perform various conditioning techniques on theaudio signals received from microphone 1720. The conditioning mayinclude amplifying audio signals determined to correspond to sound 1820relative to other audio signals. Amplification may be accomplisheddigitally, for example by processing audio signals associated with 1820relative to other signals. Amplification may also be accomplished bychanging one or more parameters of microphone 1720 to focus on audiosounds emanating from region 1830 (e.g., a region of interest)associated with user look direction 1750. For example, microphone 1720may be a directional microphone that and processor 210 may perform anoperation to focus microphone 1720 on sound 1820 or other sounds withinregion 1830. Various other techniques for amplifying sound 1820 may beused, such as using a beamforming microphone array, acoustic telescopetechniques, etc.

Conditioning may also include attenuation or suppressing one or moreaudio signals received from directions outside of region 1830. Forexample, processor 1820 may attenuate sounds 1821 and 1822. Similar toamplification of sound 1820, attenuation of sounds may occur throughprocessing audio signals, or by varying one or more parametersassociated with one or more microphones 1720 to direct focus away fromsounds emanating from outside of region 1830.

In some embodiments, conditioning may further include changing a tone ofaudio signals corresponding to sound 1820 to make sound 1820 moreperceptible to user 100. For example, user 100 may have lessersensitivity to tones in a certain range and conditioning of the audiosignals may adjust the pitch of sound 1820 to make it more perceptibleto user 100. For example, user 100 may experience hearing loss infrequencies above 10 khz. Accordingly, processor 210 may remap higherfrequencies (e.g., at 15 khz) to 10 khz. In some embodiments processor210 may be configured to change a rate of speech associated with one ormore audio signals. Accordingly, processor 210 may be configured todetect speech within one or more audio signals received by microphone1720, for example using voice activity detection (VAD) algorithms ortechniques. If sound 1820 is determined to correspond to voice orspeech, for example from individual 1810, processor 220 may beconfigured to vary the playback rate of sound 1820. For example, therate of speech of individual 1810 may be decreased to make the detectedspeech more perceptible to user 100. Various other processing may beperformed, such as modifying the tone of sound 1820 to maintain the samepitch as the original audio signal, or to reduce noise within the audiosignal. If speech recognition has been performed on the audio signalassociated with sound 1820, conditioning may further include modifyingthe audio signal based on the detected speech. For example, processor210 may introduce pauses or increase the duration of pauses betweenwords and/or sentences, which may make the speech easier to understand.

The conditioned audio signal may then be transmitted to hearinginterface device 1710 and produced for user 100. Thus, in theconditioned audio signal, sound 1820 may be easier to hear to user 100,louder and/or more easily distinguishable than sounds 1821 and 1822,which may represent background noise within the environment.

FIG. 19 is a flowchart showing an exemplary process 1900 for selectivelyamplifying sounds emanating from a detected look direction of a userconsistent with disclosed embodiments. Process 1900 may be performed byone or more processors associated with apparatus 110, such as processor210. In some embodiments, some or all of process 1900 may be performedon processors external to apparatus 110. In other words, the processorperforming process 1900 may be included in a common housing asmicrophone 1720 and camera 1730, or may be included in a second housing.For example, one or more portions of process 1900 may be performed byprocessors in hearing interface device 1710, or an auxiliary device,such as computing device 120.

In step 1910, process 1900 may include receiving a plurality of imagesfrom an environment of a user captured by a camera. The camera may be awearable camera such as camera 1730 of apparatus 110. In step 1912,process 1900 may include receiving audio signals representative ofsounds received by at least one microphone. The microphone may beconfigured to capture sounds from an environment of the user. Forexample, the microphone may be microphone 1720, as described above.Accordingly, the microphone may include a directional microphone, amicrophone array, a multi-port microphone, or various other types ofmicrophones. In some embodiments, the microphone and wearable camera maybe included in a common housing, such as the housing of apparatus 110.The one or more processors performing process 1900 may also be includedin the housing or may be included in a second housing. In suchembodiments, the processor(s) may be configured to receive images and/oraudio signals from the common housing via a wireless link (e.g.,Bluetooth™, NFC, etc.). Accordingly, the common housing (e.g., apparatus110) and the second housing (e.g., computing device 120) may furthercomprise transmitters or various other communication components.

In step 1914, process 1900 may include determining a look direction forthe user based on analysis of at least one of the plurality of images.As discussed above, various techniques may be used to determine the userlook direction. In some embodiments, the look direction may bedetermined based, at least in part, upon detection of a representationof a chin of a user in one or more images. The images may be processedto determine a pointing direction of the chin relative to an opticalaxis of the wearable camera, as discussed above.

In step 1916, process 1900 may include causing selective conditioning ofat least one audio signal received by the at least one microphone from aregion associated with the look direction of the user. As describedabove, the region may be determined based on the user look directiondetermined in step 1914. The range may be associated with an angularwidth about the look direction (e.g., 10 degrees, 20 degrees, 45degrees, etc.). Various forms of conditioning may be performed on theaudio signal, as discussed above. In some embodiments, conditioning mayinclude changing the tone or playback speed of an audio signal. Forexample, conditioning may include changing a rate of speech associatedwith the audio signal. In some embodiments, the conditioning may includeamplification of the audio signal relative to other audio signalsreceived from outside of the region associated with the look directionof the user. Amplification may be performed by various means, such asoperation of a directional microphone configured to focus on audiosounds emanating from the region, or varying one or more parametersassociated with the microphone to cause the microphone to focus on audiosounds emanating from the region. The amplification may includeattenuating or suppressing one or more audio signals received by themicrophone from directions outside the region associated with the lookdirection of user 110.

In step 1918, process 1900 may include causing transmission of the atleast one conditioned audio signal to a hearing interface deviceconfigured to provide sound to an ear of the user. The conditioned audiosignal, for example, may be transmitted to hearing interface device1710, which may provide sound corresponding to the audio signal to user100. The processor performing process 1900 may further be configured tocause transmission to the hearing interface device of one or more audiosignals representative of background noise, which may be attenuatedrelative to the at least one conditioned audio signal. For example,processor 220 may be configured to transmit audio signals correspondingto sounds 1820, 1821, and 1822. The signal associated with 1820,however, may be modified in a different manner, for example amplified,from sounds 1821 and 1822 based on a determination that sound 1820 iswithin region 1830. In some embodiments, hearing interface device 1710may include a speaker associated with an earpiece. For example, hearinginterface device may be inserted at least partially into the ear of theuser for providing audio to the user. Hearing interface device may alsobe external to the ear, such as a behind-the-ear hearing device, one ormore headphones, a small portable speaker, or the like. In someembodiments, hearing interface device may include a bone conductionmicrophone, configured to provide an audio signal to user throughvibrations of a bone of the user's head. Such devices may be placed incontact with the exterior of the user's skin, or may be implantedsurgically and attached to the bone of the user.

Hearing Aid with Voice and/or Image Recognition

Consistent with the disclosed embodiments, a hearing aid may selectivelyamplify audio signals associated with a voice of a recognizedindividual. The hearing aid system may store voice characteristicsand/or facial features of a recognized person to aid in recognition andselective amplification. For example, when an individual enters thefield of view of apparatus 110, the individual may be recognized as anindividual that has been introduced to the device, or that has possiblyinteracted with user 100 in the past (e.g., a friend, colleague,relative, prior acquaintance, etc.). Accordingly, audio signalsassociated with the recognized individual's voice may be isolated and/orselectively amplified relative to other sounds in the environment of theuser. Audio signals associated with sounds received from directionsother than the individual's direction may be suppressed, attenuated,filtered or the like.

User 100 may wear a hearing aid device similar to the camera-basedhearing aid device discussed above. For example, the hearing aid devicemay be hearing interface device 1720, as shown in FIG. 17A. Hearinginterface device 1710 may be any device configured to provide audiblefeedback to user 100. Hearing interface device 1710 may be placed in oneor both ears of user 100, similar to traditional hearing interfacedevices. As discussed above, hearing interface device 1710 may be ofvarious styles, including in-the-canal, completely-in-canal, in-the-ear,behind-the-ear, on-the-ear, receiver-in-canal, open fit, or variousother styles. Hearing interface device 1710 may include one or morespeakers for providing audible feedback to user 100, a communicationunit for receiving signals from another system, such as apparatus 110,microphones for detecting sounds in the environment of user 100,internal electronics, processors, memories, etc. Hearing interfacedevice 1710 may correspond to feedback outputting unit 230 or may beseparate from feedback outputting unit 230 and may be configured toreceive signals from feedback outputting unit 230.

In some embodiments, hearing interface device 1710 may comprise a boneconduction headphone 1711, as shown in FIG. 17A. Bone conductionheadphone 1711 may be surgically implanted and may provide audiblefeedback to user 100 through bone conduction of sound vibrations to theinner ear. Hearing interface device 1710 may also comprise one or moreheadphones (e.g., wireless headphones, over-ear headphones, etc.) or aportable speaker carried or worn by user 100. In some embodiments,hearing interface device 1710 may be integrated into other devices, suchas a Bluetooth™ headset of the user, glasses, a helmet (e.g., motorcyclehelmets, bicycle helmets, etc.), a hat, etc.

Hearing interface device 1710 may be configured to communicate with acamera device, such as apparatus 110. Such communication may be througha wired connection, or may be made wirelessly (e.g., using a Bluetooth™,NFC, or forms of wireless communication). As discussed above, apparatus110 may be worn by user 100 in various configurations, including beingphysically connected to a shirt, necklace, a belt, glasses, a wriststrap, a button, or other articles associated with user 100. In someembodiments, one or more additional devices may also be included, suchas computing device 120. Accordingly, one or more of the processes orfunctions described herein with respect to apparatus 110 or processor210 may be performed by computing device 120 and/or processor 540.

As discussed above, apparatus 110 may comprise at least one microphoneand at least one image capture device. Apparatus 110 may comprisemicrophone 1720, as described with respect to FIG. 17B. Microphone 1720may be configured to determine a directionality of sounds in theenvironment of user 100. For example, microphone 1720 may comprise oneor more directional microphones, a microphone array, a multi-portmicrophone, or the like. The microphones shown in FIG. 17B are by way ofexample only, and any suitable number, configuration, or location ofmicrophones may be utilized. Processor 210 may be configured todistinguish sounds within the environment of user 100 and determine anapproximate directionality of each sound. For example, using an array ofmicrophones 1720, processor 210 may compare the relative timing oramplitude of an individual sound among the microphones 1720 to determinea directionality relative to apparatus 100. Apparatus 110 may compriseone or more cameras, such as camera 1730, which may correspond to imagesensor 220. Camera 1730 may be configured to capture images of thesurrounding environment of user 100.

Apparatus 110 may be configured to recognize an individual in theenvironment of user 100. FIG. 20A is a schematic illustration showing anexemplary environment for use of a hearing aid with voice and/or imagerecognition consistent with the present disclosure. Apparatus 110 may beconfigured to recognize a face 2011 or voice 2012 associated with anindividual 2010 within the environment of user 100. For example,apparatus 110 may be configured to capture one or more images of thesurrounding environment of user 100 using camera 1730. The capturedimages may include a representation of a recognized individual 2010,which may be a friend, colleague, relative, or prior acquaintance ofuser 100. Processor 210 (and/or processors 210 a and 210 b) may beconfigured to analyze the captured images and detect the recognized userusing various facial recognition techniques, as represented by element2011. Accordingly, apparatus 110, or specifically memory 550, maycomprise one or more facial or voice recognition components.

FIG. 20B illustrates an exemplary embodiment of apparatus 110 comprisingfacial and voice recognition components consistent with the presentdisclosure. Apparatus 110 is shown in FIG. 20B in a simplified form, andapparatus 110 may contain additional elements or may have alternativeconfigurations, for example, as shown in FIGS. 5A-5C. Memory 550 (or 550a or 550 b) may include facial recognition component 2040 and voicerecognition component 2041. These components may be instead of or inaddition to orientation identification module 601, orientationadjustment module 602, and motion tracking module 603 as shown in FIG.6. Components 2040 and 2041 may contain software instructions forexecution by at least one processing device, e.g., processor 210,included with a wearable apparatus. Components 2040 and 2041 are shownwithin memory 550 by way of example only, and may be located in otherlocations within the system. For example, components 2040 and 2041 maybe located in hearing interface device 1710, in computing device 120, ona remote server, or in another associated device.

Facial recognition component 2040 may be configured to identify one ormore faces within the environment of user 100. For example, facialrecognition component 2040 may identify facial features on the face 2011of individual 2010, such as the eyes, nose, cheekbones, jaw, or otherfeatures. Facial recognition component 2040 may then analyze therelative size and position of these features to identify the user.Facial recognition component 2040 may utilize one or more algorithms foranalyzing the detected features, such as principal component analysis(e.g., using eigenfaces), linear discriminant analysis, elastic bunchgraph matching (e.g., using Fisherface), Local Binary PatternsHistograms (LBPH), Scale Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT), Speed UpRobust Features (SURF), or the like. Other facial recognition techniquessuch as 3-Dimensional recognition, skin texture analysis, and/or thermalimaging may also be used to identify individuals. Other features besidesfacial features may also be used for identification, such as the height,body shape, or other distinguishing features of individual 2010.

Facial recognition component 2040 may access a database or dataassociated with user 100 to determine if the detected facial featurescorrespond to a recognized individual. For example, a processor 210 mayaccess a database 2050 containing information about individuals known touser 100 and data representing associated facial features or otheridentifying features. Such data may include one or more images of theindividuals, or data representative of a face of the user that may beused for identification through facial recognition. Database 2050 may beany device capable of storing information about one or more individuals,and may include a hard drive, a solid state drive, a web storageplatform, a remote server, or the like. Database 2050 may be locatedwithin apparatus 110 (e.g., within memory 550) or external to apparatus110, as shown in FIG. 20B. In some embodiments, database 2050 may beassociated with a social network platform, such as Facebook™, LinkedIn™,Instagram™, etc. Facial recognition component 2040 may also access acontact list of user 100, such as a contact list on the user's phone, aweb-based contact list (e.g., through Outlook™, Skype™, Google™SalesForce™, etc.) or a dedicated contact list associated with hearinginterface device 1710. In some embodiments, database 2050 may becompiled by apparatus 110 through previous facial recognition analysis.For example, processor 210 may be configured to store data associatedwith one or more faces recognized in images captured by apparatus 110 indatabase 2050. Each time a face is detected in the images, the detectedfacial features or other data may be compared to previously identifiedfaces in database 2050. Facial recognition component 2040 may determinethat an individual is a recognized individual of user 100 if theindividual has previously been recognized by the system in a number ofinstances exceeding a certain threshold, if the individual has beenexplicitly introduced to apparatus 110, or the like.

In some embodiments, user 100 may have access to database 2050, such asthrough a web interface, an application on a mobile device, or throughapparatus 110 or an associated device. For example, user 100 may be ableto select which contacts are recognizable by apparatus 110 and/or deleteor add certain contacts manually. In some embodiments, a user oradministrator may be able to train facial recognition component 2040.For example, user 100 may have an option to confirm or rejectidentifications made by facial recognition component 2040, which mayimprove the accuracy of the system. This training may occur in realtime, as individual 2010 is being recognized, or at some later time.

Other data or information may also inform the facial identificationprocess. In some embodiments, processor 210 may use various techniquesto recognize the voice of individual 2010, as described in furtherdetail below. The recognized voice pattern and the detected facialfeatures may be used, either alone or in combination, to determine thatindividual 2010 is recognized by apparatus 110. Processor 210 may alsodetermine a user look direction 1750, as described above, which may beused to verify the identity of individual 2010. For example, if user 100is looking in the direction of individual 2010 (especially for aprolonged period), this may indicate that individual 2010 is recognizedby user 100, which may be used to increase the confidence of facialrecognition component 2040 or other identification means.

Processor 210 may further be configured to determine whether individual2010 is recognized by user 100 based on one or more detected audiocharacteristics of sounds associated with a voice of individual 2010.Returning to FIG. 20A, processor 210 may determine that sound 2020corresponds to voice 2012 of user 2010. Processor 210 may analyze audiosignals representative of sound 2020 captured by microphone 1720 todetermine whether individual 2010 is recognized by user 100. This may beperformed using voice recognition component 2041 (FIG. 20B) and mayinclude one or more voice recognition algorithms, such as Hidden MarkovModels, Dynamic Time Warping, neural networks, or other techniques.Voice recognition component and/or processor 210 may access database2050, which may further include a voiceprint of one or more individuals.Voice recognition component 2041 may analyze the audio signalrepresentative of sound 2020 to determine whether voice 2012 matches avoiceprint of an individual in database 2050. Accordingly, database 2050may contain voiceprint data associated with a number of individuals,similar to the stored facial identification data described above. Afterdetermining a match, individual 2010 may be determined to be arecognized individual of user 100. This process may be used alone, or inconjunction with the facial recognition techniques described above. Forexample, individual 2010 may be recognized using facial recognitioncomponent 2040 and may be verified using voice recognition component2041, or vice versa.

In some embodiments, apparatus 110 may detect the voice of an individualthat is not within the field of view of apparatus 110. For example, thevoice may be heard over a speakerphone, from a back seat, or the like.In such embodiments, recognition of an individual may be based on thevoice of the individual only, in the absence of a speaker in the fieldof view. Processor 110 may analyze the voice of the individual asdescribed above, for example, by determining whether the detected voicematches a voiceprint of an individual in database 2050.

After determining that individual 2010 is a recognized individual ofuser 100, processor 210 may cause selective conditioning of audioassociated with the recognized individual. The conditioned audio signalmay be transmitted to hearing interface device 1710, and thus mayprovide user 100 with audio conditioned based on the recognizedindividual. For example, the conditioning may include amplifying audiosignals determined to correspond to sound 2020 (which may correspond tovoice 2012 of individual 2010) relative to other audio signals. In someembodiments, amplification may be accomplished digitally, for example byprocessing audio signals associated with sound 2020 relative to othersignals. Additionally, or alternatively, amplification may beaccomplished by changing one or more parameters of microphone 1720 tofocus on audio sounds associated with individual 2010. For example,microphone 1720 may be a directional microphone and processor 210 mayperform an operation to focus microphone 1720 on sound 2020. Variousother techniques for amplifying sound 2020 may be used, such as using abeamforming microphone array, acoustic telescope techniques, etc.

In some embodiments, selective conditioning may include attenuation orsuppressing one or more audio signals received from directions notassociated with individual 2010. For example, processor 210 mayattenuate sounds 2021 and/or 2022. Similar to amplification of sound2020, attenuation of sounds may occur through processing audio signals,or by varying one or more parameters associated with microphone 1720 todirect focus away from sounds not associated with individual 2010.

Selective conditioning may further include determining whetherindividual 2010 is speaking. For example, processor 210 may beconfigured to analyze images or videos containing representations ofindividual 2010 to determine when individual 2010 is speaking, forexample, based on detected movement of the recognized individual's lips.This may also be determined through analysis of audio signals receivedby microphone 1720, for example by detecting the voice 2012 ofindividual 2010. In some embodiments, the selective conditioning mayoccur dynamically (initiated and/or terminated) based on whether or notthe recognized individual is speaking.

In some embodiments, conditioning may further include changing a tone ofone or more audio signals corresponding to sound 2020 to make the soundmore perceptible to user 100. For example, user 100 may have lessersensitivity to tones in a certain range and conditioning of the audiosignals may adjust the pitch of sound 2020. In some embodimentsprocessor 210 may be configured to change a rate of speech associatedwith one or more audio signals. For example, sound 2020 may bedetermined to correspond to voice 2012 of individual 2010. Processor 210may be configured to vary the rate of speech of individual 2010 to makethe detected speech more perceptible to user 100. Various otherprocessing may be performed, such as modifying the tone of sound 2020 tomaintain the same pitch as the original audio signal, or to reduce noisewithin the audio signal.

In some embodiments, processor 210 may determine a region 2030associated with individual 2010. Region 2030 may be associated with adirection of individual 2010 relative to apparatus 110 or user 100. Thedirection of individual 2010 may be determined using camera 1730 and/ormicrophone 1720 using the methods described above. As shown in FIG. 20A,region 2030 may be defined by a cone or range of directions based on adetermined direction of individual 2010. The range of angles may bedefined by an angle, θ, as shown in FIG. 20A. The angle, θ, may be anysuitable angle for defining a range for conditioning sounds within theenvironment of user 100 (e.g., 10 degrees, 20 degrees, 45 degrees).Region 2030 may be dynamically calculated as the position of individual2010 changes relative to apparatus 110. For example, as user 100 turns,or if individual 1020 moves within the environment, processor 210 may beconfigured to track individual 2010 within the environment anddynamically update region 2030. Region 2030 may be used for selectiveconditioning, for example by amplifying sounds associated with region2030 and/or attenuating sounds determined to be emanating from outsideof region 2030.

The conditioned audio signal may then be transmitted to hearinginterface device 1710 and produced for user 100. Thus, in theconditioned audio signal, sound 2020 (and specifically voice 2012) maybe louder and/or more easily distinguishable than sounds 2021 and 2022,which may represent background noise within the environment.

In some embodiments, processor 210 may perform further analysis based oncaptured images or videos to determine how to selectively conditionaudio signals associated with a recognized individual. In someembodiments, processor 210 may analyze the captured images toselectively condition audio associated with one individual relative toothers. For example, processor 210 may determine the direction of arecognized individual relative to the user based on the images and maydetermine how to selectively condition audio signals associated with theindividual based on the direction. If the recognized individual isstanding to the front of the user, audio associated with that user maybe amplified (or otherwise selectively conditioned) relative to audioassociated with an individual standing to the side of the user.Similarly, processor 210 may selectively condition audio signalsassociated with an individual based on proximity to the user. Processor210 may determine a distance from the user to each individual based oncaptured images and may selectively condition audio signals associatedwith the individuals based on the distance. For example, an individualcloser to the user may be prioritized higher than an individual that isfarther away.

In some embodiments, selective conditioning of audio signals associatedwith a recognized individual may be based on the identities ofindividuals within the environment of the user. For example, wheremultiple individuals are detected in the images, processor 210 may useone or more facial recognition techniques to identify the individuals,as described above. Audio signals associated with individuals that areknown to user 100 may be selectively amplified or otherwise conditionedto have priority over unknown individuals. For example, processor 210may be configured to attenuate or silence audio signals associated withbystanders in the user's environment, such as a noisy office mate, etc.In some embodiments, processor 210 may also determine a hierarchy ofindividuals and give priority based on the relative status of theindividuals. This hierarchy may be based on the individual's positionwithin a family or an organization (e.g., a company, sports team, club,etc.) relative to the user. For example, the user's boss may be rankedhigher than a co-worker or a member of the maintenance staff and thusmay have priority in the selective conditioning process. In someembodiments, the hierarchy may be determined based on a list ordatabase. Individuals recognized by the system may be rankedindividually or grouped into tiers of priority. This database may bemaintained specifically for this purpose, or may be accessed externally.For example, the database may be associated with a social network of theuser (e.g., Facebook™, LinkedIn™, etc.) and individuals may beprioritized based on their grouping or relationship with the user.Individuals identified as “close friends” or family, for example, may beprioritized over acquaintances of the user.

Selective conditioning may be based on a determined behavior of one ormore individuals determined based on the captured images. In someembodiments, processor 210 may be configured to determine a lookdirection of the individuals in the images. Accordingly, the selectiveconditioning may be based on behavior of the other individuals towardsthe recognized individual. For example, processor 210 may selectivelycondition audio associated with a first individual that one or moreother users are looking at. If the attention of the individuals shiftsto a second individual, processor 210 may then switch to selectivelycondition audio associated with the second user. In some embodiments,processor 210 may be configured to selectively condition audio based onwhether a recognized individual is speaking to the user or to anotherindividual. For example, when the recognized individual is speaking tothe user, the selective conditioning may include amplifying an audiosignal associated with the recognized individual relative to other audiosignals received from directions outside a region associated with therecognized individual. When the recognized individual is speaking toanother individual, the selective conditioning may include attenuatingthe audio signal relative to other audio signals received fromdirections outside the region associated with the recognized individual.

In some embodiments, processor 210 may have access to one or morevoiceprints of individuals, which may facilitate selective conditioningof voice 2012 of individual 2010 in relation to other sounds or voices.Having a speaker's voiceprint, and a high quality voiceprint inparticular, may provide for fast and efficient speaker separation. Ahigh quality voice print may be collected, for example, when the userspeaks alone, preferably in a quiet environment. By having a voiceprintof one or more speakers, it is possible to separate an ongoing voicesignal almost in real time, e.g. with a minimal delay, using a slidingtime window. The delay may be, for example 10 ms, 20 ms, 30 ms, 50 ms,100 ms, or the like. Different time windows may be selected, dependingon the quality of the voice print, on the quality of the captured audio,the difference in characteristics between the speaker and otherspeaker(s), the available processing resources, the required separationquality, or the like. In some embodiments, a voice print may beextracted from a segment of a conversation in which an individual speaksalone, and then used for separating the individual's voice later in theconversation, whether the individual's is recognized or not.

Separating voices may be performed as follows: spectral features, alsoreferred to as spectral attributes, spectral envelope, or spectrogrammay be extracted from a clean audio of a single speaker and fed into apre-trained first neural network, which generates or updates a signatureof the speaker's voice based on the extracted features. The audio may befor example, of one second of clean voice. The output signature may be avector representing the speaker's voice, such that the distance betweenthe vector and another vector extracted from the voice of the samespeaker is typically smaller than the distance between the vector and avector extracted from the voice of another speaker. The speaker's modelmay be pre-generated from a captured audio. Alternatively oradditionally, the model may be generated after a segment of the audio inwhich only the speaker speaks, followed by another segment in which thespeaker and another speaker (or background noise) is heard, and which itis required to separate.

Then, to separate the speaker's voice from additional speakers orbackground noise in a noisy audio, a second pre-trained neural networkmay receive the noisy audio and the speaker's signature and output anaudio (which may also be represented as attributes) of the voice of thespeaker as extracted from the noisy audio, separated from the otherspeech or background noise. It will be appreciated that the same oradditional neural networks may be used to separate the voices ofmultiple speakers. For example, if there are two possible speakers, twoneural networks may be activated, each with models of the same noisyoutput and one of the two speakers. Alternatively, a neural network mayreceive voice signatures of two or more speakers and output the voice ofeach of the speakers separately. Accordingly, the system may generatetwo or more different audio outputs, each comprising the speech of therespective speaker. In some embodiments, if separation is impossible,the input voice may only be cleaned from background noise.

FIG. 21 is a flowchart showing an exemplary process 2100 for selectivelyamplifying audio signals associated with a voice of a recognizedindividual consistent with disclosed embodiments. Process 2100 may beperformed by one or more processors associated with apparatus 110, suchas processor 210. In some embodiments, some or all of process 2100 maybe performed on processors external to apparatus 110. In other words,the processor performing process 2100 may be included in the same commonhousing as microphone 1720 and camera 1730, or may be included in asecond housing. For example, one or more portions of process 2100 may beperformed by processors in hearing interface device 1710, or in anauxiliary device, such as computing device 120.

In step 2110, process 2100 may include receiving a plurality of imagesfrom an environment of a user captured by a camera. The images may becaptured by a wearable camera such as camera 1730 of apparatus 110. Instep 2112, process 2100 may include identifying a representation of arecognized individual in at least one of the plurality of images.Individual 2010 may be recognized by processor 210 using facialrecognition component 2040, as described above. For example, individual2010 may be a friend, colleague, relative, or prior acquaintance of theuser. Processor 210 may determine whether an individual represented inat least one of the plurality of images is a recognized individual basedon one or more detected facial features associated with the individual.Processor 210 may also determine whether the individual is recognizedbased on one or more detected audio characteristics of sounds determinedto be associated with a voice of the individual, as described above.

In step 2114, process 2100 may include receiving audio signalsrepresentative of sounds captured by a microphone. For example,apparatus 110 may receive audio signals representative of sounds 2020,2021, and 2022, captured by microphone 1720. Accordingly, the microphonemay include a directional microphone, a microphone array, a multi-portmicrophone, or various other types of microphones, as described above.In some embodiments, the microphone and wearable camera may be includedin a common housing, such as the housing of apparatus 110. The one ormore processors performing process 2100 may also be included in thehousing (e.g., processor 210), or may be included in a second housing.Where a second housing is used, the processor(s) may be configured toreceive images and/or audio signals from the common housing via awireless link (e.g., Bluetooth™, NFC, etc.). Accordingly, the commonhousing (e.g., apparatus 110) and the second housing (e.g., computingdevice 120) may further comprise transmitters, receivers, and/or variousother communication components.

In step 2116, process 2100 may include cause selective conditioning ofat least one audio signal received by the at least one microphone from aregion associated with the at least one recognized individual. Asdescribed above, the region may be determined based on a determineddirection of the recognized individual based one or more of theplurality of images or audio signals. The range may be associated withan angular width about the direction of the recognized individual (e.g.,10 degrees, 20 degrees, 45 degrees, etc.).

Various forms of conditioning may be performed on the audio signal, asdiscussed above. In some embodiments, conditioning may include changingthe tone or playback speed of an audio signal. For example, conditioningmay include changing a rate of speech associated with the audio signal.In some embodiments, the conditioning may include amplification of theaudio signal relative to other audio signals received from outside ofthe region associated with the recognized individual. Amplification maybe performed by various means, such as operation of a directionalmicrophone configured to focus on audio sounds emanating from the regionor varying one or more parameters associated with the microphone tocause the microphone to focus on audio sounds emanating from the region.The amplification may include attenuating or suppressing one or moreaudio signals received by the microphone from directions outside theregion. In some embodiments, step 2116 may further comprise determining,based on analysis of the plurality of images, that the recognizedindividual is speaking and trigger the selective conditioning based onthe determination that the recognized individual is speaking. Forexample, the determination that the recognized individual is speakingmay be based on detected movement of the recognized individual's lips.In some embodiments, selective conditioning may be based on furtheranalysis of the captured images as described above, for example, basedon the direction or proximity of the recognized individual, the identityof the recognized individual, the behavior of other individuals, etc.

In step 2118, process 2100 may include causing transmission of the atleast one conditioned audio signal to a hearing interface deviceconfigured to provide sound to an ear of the user. The conditioned audiosignal, for example, may be transmitted to hearing interface device1710, which may provide sound corresponding to the audio signal to user100. The processor performing process 2100 may further be configured tocause transmission to the hearing interface device of one or more audiosignals representative of background noise, which may be attenuatedrelative to the at least one conditioned audio signal. For example,processor 210 may be configured to transmit audio signals correspondingto sounds 2020, 2021, and 2022. The signal associated with 2020,however, may be amplified in relation to sounds 2021 and 2022 based on adetermination that sound 2020 is within region 2030. In someembodiments, hearing interface device 1710 may include a speakerassociated with an earpiece. For example, hearing interface device 1710may be inserted at least partially into the ear of the user forproviding audio to the user. Hearing interface device may also beexternal to the ear, such as a behind-the-ear hearing device, one ormore headphones, a small portable speaker, or the like. In someembodiments, hearing interface device may include a bone conductionmicrophone, configured to provide an audio signal to user throughvibrations of a bone of the user's head. Such devices may be placed incontact with the exterior of the user's skin, or may be implantedsurgically and attached to the bone of the user.

In addition to recognizing voices of individuals speaking to user 100,the systems and methods described above may also be used to recognizethe voice of user 100. For example, voice recognition unit 2041 may beconfigured to analyze audio signals representative of sounds collectedfrom the user's environment to recognize the voice of user 100. Similarto the selective conditioning of the voice of recognized individuals,the voice of user 100 may be selectively conditioned. For example,sounds may be collected by microphone 1720, or by a microphone ofanother device, such as a mobile phone (or a device linked to a mobilephone). Audio signals corresponding to the voice of user 100 may beselectively transmitted to a remote device, for example, by amplifyingthe voice of user 100 and/or attenuating or eliminating altogethersounds other than the user's voice. Accordingly, a voiceprint of one ormore users of apparatus 110 may be collected and/or stored to facilitatedetection and/or isolation of the user's voice, as described in furtherdetail above.

FIG. 22 is a flowchart showing an exemplary process 2200 for selectivelytransmitting audio signals associated with a voice of a recognized userconsistent with disclosed embodiments. Process 2200 may be performed byone or more processors associated with apparatus 110, such as processor210.

In step 2210, process 2200 may include receiving audio signalsrepresentative of sounds captured by a microphone. For example,apparatus 110 may receive audio signals representative of sounds 2020,2021, and 2022, captured by microphone 1720. Accordingly, the microphonemay include a directional microphone, a microphone array, a multi-portmicrophone, or various other types of microphones, as described above.In step 2212, process 2200 may include identifying, based on analysis ofthe received audio signals, one or more voice audio signalsrepresentative of a recognized voice of the user. For example, the voiceof the user may be recognized based on a voiceprint associated with theuser, which may be stored in memory 550, database 2050, or othersuitable locations. Processor 210 may recognize the voice of the user,for example, using voice recognition component 2041. Processor 210 mayseparate an ongoing voice signal associated with the user almost in realtime, e.g. with a minimal delay, using a sliding time window. The voicemay be separated by extracting spectral features of an audio signalaccording to the methods described above.

In step 2214, process 2200 may include causing transmission, to aremotely located device, of the one or more voice audio signalsrepresentative of the recognized voice of the user. The remotely locateddevice may be any device configured to receive audio signals remotely,either by a wired or wireless form of communication. In someembodiments, the remotely located device may be another device of theuser, such as a mobile phone, an audio interface device, or another formof computing device. In some embodiments, the voice audio signals may beprocessed by the remotely located device and/or transmitted further. Instep 2216, process 2200 may include preventing transmission, to theremotely located device, of at least one background noise audio signaldifferent from the one or more voice audio signals representative of arecognized voice of the user. For example, processor 210 may attenuateand/or eliminate audio signals associated with sounds 2020, 2021, or2023, which may represent background noise. The voice of the user may beseparated from other noises using the audio processing techniquesdescribed above.

In an exemplary illustration, the voice audio signals may be captured bya headset or other device worn by the user. The voice of the user may berecognized and isolated from the background noise in the environment ofthe user. The headset may transmit the conditioned audio signal of theuser's voice to a mobile phone of the user. For example, the user may beon a telephone call and the conditioned audio signal may be transmittedby the mobile phone to a recipient of the call. The voice of the usermay also be recorded by the remotely located device. The audio signal,for example, may be stored on a remote server or other computing device.In some embodiments, the remotely located device may process thereceived audio signal, for example, to convert the recognized user'svoice into text.

Lip-Tracking Hearing Aid

Consistent with the disclosed embodiments, a hearing aid system mayselectively amplify audio signals based on tracked lip movements. Thehearing aid system analyzes captured images of the environment of a userto detect lips of an individual and track movement of the individual'slips. The tracked lip movements may serve as a cue for selectivelyamplifying audio received by the hearing aid system. For example, voicesignals determined to sync with the tracked lip movements or that areconsistent with the tracked lip movements may be selectively amplifiedor otherwise conditioned. Audio signals that are not associated with thedetected lip movement may be suppressed, attenuated, filtered or thelike.

User 100 may wear a hearing aid device consistent with the camera-basedhearing aid device discussed above. For example, the hearing aid devicemay be hearing interface device 1710, as shown in FIG. 17A. Hearinginterface device 1710 may be any device configured to provide audiblefeedback to user 100. Hearing interface device 1710 may be placed in oneor both ears of user 100, similar to traditional hearing interfacedevices. As discussed above, hearing interface device 1710 may be ofvarious styles, including in-the-canal, completely-in-canal, in-the-ear,behind-the-ear, on-the-ear, receiver-in-canal, open fit, or variousother styles. Hearing interface device 1710 may include one or morespeakers for providing audible feedback to user 100, microphones fordetecting sounds in the environment of user 100, internal electronics,processors, memories, etc. In some embodiments, in addition to orinstead of a microphone, hearing interface device 1710 may comprise oneor more communication units, and one or more receivers for receivingsignals from apparatus 110 and transferring the signals to user 100.Hearing interface device 1710 may correspond to feedback outputting unit230 or may be separate from feedback outputting unit 230 and may beconfigured to receive signals from feedback outputting unit 230.

In some embodiments, hearing interface device 1710 may comprise a boneconduction headphone 1711, as shown in FIG. 17A. Bone conductionheadphone 1711 may be surgically implanted and may provide audiblefeedback to user 100 through bone conduction of sound vibrations to theinner ear. Hearing interface device 1710 may also comprise one or moreheadphones (e.g., wireless headphones, over-ear headphones, etc.) or aportable speaker carried or worn by user 100. In some embodiments,hearing interface device 1710 may be integrated into other devices, suchas a Bluetooth™ headset of the user, glasses, a helmet (e.g., motorcyclehelmets, bicycle helmets, etc.), a hat, etc.

Hearing interface device 1710 may be configured to communicate with acamera device, such as apparatus 110. Such communication may be througha wired connection, or may be made wirelessly (e.g., using a Bluetooth™,NFC, or forms of wireless communication). As discussed above, apparatus110 may be worn by user 100 in various configurations, including beingphysically connected to a shirt, necklace, a belt, glasses, a wriststrap, a button, or other articles associated with user 100. In someembodiments, one or more additional devices may also be included, suchas computing device 120. Accordingly, one or more of the processes orfunctions described herein with respect to apparatus 110 or processor210 may be performed by computing device 120 and/or processor 540.

As discussed above, apparatus 110 may comprise at least one microphoneand at least one image capture device. Apparatus 110 may comprisemicrophone 1720, as described with respect to FIG. 17B. Microphone 1720may be configured to determine a directionality of sounds in theenvironment of user 100. For example, microphone 1720 may comprise oneor more directional microphones, a microphone array, a multi-portmicrophone, or the like. Processor 210 may be configured to distinguishsounds within the environment of user 100 and determine an approximatedirectionality of each sound. For example, using an array of microphones1720, processor 210 may compare the relative timing or amplitude of anindividual sound among the microphones 1720 to determine adirectionality relative to apparatus 100. Apparatus 110 may comprise oneor more cameras, such as camera 1730, which may correspond to imagesensor 220. Camera 1730 may be configured to capture images of thesurrounding environment of user 100. Apparatus 110 may also use one ormore microphones of hearing interface device 1710 and, accordingly,references to microphone 1720 used herein may also refer to a microphoneon hearing interface device 1710.

Processor 210 (and/or processors 210 a and 210 b) may be configured todetect a mouth and/or lips associated with an individual within theenvironment of user 100. FIGS. 23A and 23B show an exemplary individual2310 that may be captured by camera 1730 in the environment of a userconsistent with the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 23, individual2310 may be physically present with the environment of user 100.Processor 210 may be configured to analyze images captured by camera1730 to detect a representation of individual 2310 in the images.Processor 210 may use a facial recognition component, such as facialrecognition component 2040, described above, to detect and identifyindividuals in the environment of user 100. Processor 210 may beconfigured to detect one or more facial features of user 2310, includinga mouth 2311 of individual 2310. Accordingly, processor 210 may use oneor more facial recognition and/or feature recognition techniques, asdescribed further below.

In some embodiments, processor 210 may detect a visual representation ofindividual 2310 from the environment of user 100, such as a video ofuser 2310. As shown in FIG. 23B, user 2310 may be detected on thedisplay of a display device 2301. Display device 2301 may be any devicecapable of displaying a visual representation of an individual. Forexample, display device may be a personal computer, a laptop, a mobilephone, a tablet, a television, a movie screen, a handheld gaming device,a video conferencing device (e.g., Facebook Portal™, etc.), a babymonitor, etc. The visual representation of individual 2310 may be a livevideo feed of individual 2310, such as a video call, a conference call,a surveillance video, etc. In other embodiments, the visualrepresentation of individual 2310 may be a prerecorded video or image,such as a video message, a television program, or a movie. Processor 210may detect one or more facial features based on the visualrepresentation of individual 2310, including a mouth 2311 of individual2310.

FIG. 23C illustrates an exemplary lip-tracking system consistent withthe disclosed embodiments. Processor 210 may be configured to detect oneor more facial features of individual 2310, which may include, but isnot limited to the individual's mouth 2311. Accordingly, processor 210may use one or more image processing techniques to recognize facialfeatures of the user, such as convolutional neural networks (CNN),scale-invariant feature transform (SIFT), histogram of orientedgradients (HOG) features, or other techniques. In some embodiments,processor 210 may be configured to detect one or more points 2320associated with the mouth 2311 of individual 2310. Points 2320 mayrepresent one or more characteristic points of an individual's mouth,such as one or more points along the individual's lips or the corner ofthe individual's mouth. The points shown in FIG. 23C are forillustrative purposes only and it is understood that any points fortracking the individual's lips may be determined or identified via oneor more image processing techniques. Points 2320 may be detected atvarious other locations, including points associated with theindividual's teeth, tongue, cheek, chin, eyes, etc. Processor 210 maydetermine one or more contours of mouth 2311 (e.g., represented by linesor polygons) based on points 2320 or based on the captured image. Thecontour may represent the entire mouth 2311 or may comprise multiplecontours, for example including a contour representing an upper lip anda contour representing a lower lip. Each lip may also be represented bymultiple contours, such as a contour for the upper edge and a contourfor the lower edge of each lip. Processor 210 may further use variousother techniques or characteristics, such as color, edge, shape ormotion detection algorithms to identify the lips of individual 2310. Theidentified lips may be tracked over multiple frames or images. Processor210 may use one or more video tracking algorithms, such as mean-shifttracking, contour tracking (e.g., a condensation algorithm), or variousother techniques. Accordingly, processor 210 may be configured to trackmovement of the lips of individual 2310 in real time.

The tracked lip movement of individual 2310 may be used to separate ifrequired, and selectively condition one or more sounds in theenvironment of user 100. FIG. 24 is a schematic illustration showing anexemplary environment 2400 for use of a lip-tracking hearing aidconsistent with the present disclosure. Apparatus 110, worn by user 100may be configured to identify one or more individuals within environment2400. For example, apparatus 110 may be configured to capture one ormore images of the surrounding environment 2400 using camera 1730. Thecaptured images may include a representation of individuals 2310 and2410, who may be present in environment 2400. Processor 210 may beconfigured to detect a mouth of individuals 2310 and 2410 and tracktheir respective lip movements using the methods described above. Insome embodiments, processor 210 may further be configured to identifyindividuals 2310 and 2410, for example, by detecting facial features ofindividuals 2310 and 2410 and comparing them to a database, as discussedpreviously.

In addition to detecting images, apparatus 110 may be configured todetect one or more sounds in the environment of user 100. For example,microphone 1720 may detect one or more sounds 2421, 2422, and 2423within environment 2400. In some embodiments, the sounds may representvoices of various individuals. For example, as shown in FIG. 24, sound2421 may represent a voice of individual 2310 and sound 2422 mayrepresent a voice of individual 2410. Sound 2423 may representadditional voices and/or background noise within environment 2400.Processor 210 may be configured to analyze sounds 2421, 2422, and 2423to separate and identify audio signals associated with voices. Forexample, processor 210 may use one or more speech or voice activitydetection (VAD) algorithms and/or the voice separation techniquesdescribed above. When there are multiple voices detected in theenvironment, processor 210 may isolate audio signals associated witheach voice. In some embodiments, processor 210 may perform furtheranalysis on the audio signal associated the detected voice activity torecognize the speech of the individual. For example, processor 210 mayuse one or more voice recognition algorithms (e.g., Hidden MarkovModels, Dynamic Time Warping, neural networks, or other techniques) torecognize the voice of the individual. Processor 210 may also beconfigured to recognize the words spoken by individual 2310 usingvarious speech-to-text algorithms. In some embodiments, instead of usingmicrophone 1710, apparatus 110 may receive audio signals from anotherdevice through a communication component, such as wireless transceiver530. For example, if user 100 is on a video call, apparatus 110 mayreceive an audio signal representing a voice of user 2310 from displaydevice 2301 or another auxiliary device.

Processor 210 may determine, based on lip movements and the detectedsounds, which individuals in environment 2400 are speaking. For example,processor 2310 may track lip movements associated with mouth 2311 todetermine that individual 2310 is speaking. A comparative analysis maybe performed between the detected lip movement and the received audiosignals. In some embodiments, processor 210 may determine thatindividual 2310 is speaking based on a determination that mouth 2311 ismoving at the same time as sound 2421 is detected. For example, when thelips of individual 2310 stop moving, this may correspond with a periodof silence or reduced volume in the audio signal associated with sound2421. In some embodiments, processor 210 may be configured to determinewhether specific movements of mouth 2311 correspond to the receivedaudio signal. For example, processor 210 may analyze the received audiosignal to identify specific phonemes, phoneme combinations or words inthe received audio signal. Processor 210 may recognize whether specificlip movements of mouth 2311 correspond to the identified words orphonemes. Various machine learning or deep learning techniques may beimplemented to correlate the expected lip movements to the detectedaudio. For example, a training data set of known sounds andcorresponding lip movements may be fed to a machine learning algorithmto develop a model for correlating detected sounds with expected lipmovements. Other data associated with apparatus 110 may further be usedin conjunction with the detected lip movement to determine and/or verifywhether individual 2310 is speaking, such as a look direction of user100 or individual 2310, a detected identity of user 2310, a recognizedvoiceprint of user 2310, etc.

Based on the detected lip movement, processor 210 may cause selectiveconditioning of audio associated with individual 2310. The conditioningmay include amplifying audio signals determined to correspond to sound2421 (which may correspond to a voice of individual 2310) relative toother audio signals. In some embodiments, amplification may beaccomplished digitally, for example by processing audio signalsassociated with sound 2421 relative to other signals. Additionally, oralternatively, amplification may be accomplished by changing one or moreparameters of microphone 1720 to focus on audio sounds associated withindividual 2310. For example, microphone 1720 may be a directionalmicrophone and processor 210 may perform an operation to focusmicrophone 1720 on sound 2421. Various other techniques for amplifyingsound 2421 may be used, such as using a beamforming microphone array,acoustic telescope techniques, etc. The conditioned audio signal may betransmitted to hearing interface device 1710, and thus may provide user100 with audio conditioned based on the individual who is speaking.

In some embodiments, selective conditioning may include attenuation orsuppressing one or more audio signals not associated with individual2310, such as sounds 2422 and 2423. Similar to amplification of sound2421, attenuation of sounds may occur through processing audio signals,or by varying one or more parameters associated with microphone 1720 todirect focus away from sounds not associated with individual 2310.

In some embodiments, conditioning may further include changing a tone ofone or more audio signals corresponding to sound 2421 to make the soundmore perceptible to user 100. For example, user 100 may have lessersensitivity to tones in a certain range and conditioning of the audiosignals may adjust the pitch of sound 2421. For example, user 100 mayexperience hearing loss in frequencies above 10 kHz and processor 210may remap higher frequencies (e.g., at 15 kHz) to 10 kHz. In someembodiments processor 210 may be configured to change a rate of speechassociated with one or more audio signals. Processor 210 may beconfigured to vary the rate of speech of individual 2310 to make thedetected speech more perceptible to user 100. If speech recognition hasbeen performed on the audio signal associated with sound 2421,conditioning may further include modifying the audio signal based on thedetected speech. For example, processor 210 may introduce pauses orincrease the duration of pauses between words and/or sentences, whichmay make the speech easier to understand. Various other processing maybe performed, such as modifying the tone of sound 2421 to maintain thesame pitch as the original audio signal, or to reduce noise within theaudio signal.

The conditioned audio signal may then be transmitted to hearinginterface device 1710 and then produced for user 100. Thus, in theconditioned audio signal, sound 2421 (may be louder and/or more easilydistinguishable than sounds 2422 and 2423.

Processor 210 may be configured to selectively condition multiple audiosignals based on which individuals associated with the audio signals arecurrently speaking. For example, individual 2310 and individual 2410 maybe engaged in a conversation within environment 2400 and processor 210may be configured to transition from conditioning of audio signalsassociated with sound 2421 to conditioning of audio signals associatedwith sound 2422 based on the respective lip movements of individuals2310 and 2410. For example, lip movements of individual 2310 mayindicate that individual 2310 has stopped speaking or lip movementsassociated with individual 2410 may indicate that individual 2410 hasstarted speaking. Accordingly, processor 210 may transition betweenselectively conditioning audio signals associated with sound 2421 toaudio signals associated with sound 2422. In some embodiments, processor210 may be configured to process and/or condition both audio signalsconcurrently but only selectively transmit the conditioned audio tohearing interface device 1710 based on which individual is speaking.Where speech recognition is implemented, processor 210 may determineand/or anticipate a transition between speakers based on the context ofthe speech. For example, processor 210 may analyze audio signalsassociate with sound 2421 to determine that individual 2310 has reachedthe end of a sentence or has asked a question, which may indicateindividual 2310 has finished or is about to finish speaking.

In some embodiments, processor 210 may be configured to select betweenmultiple active speakers to selectively condition audio signals. Forexample, individuals 2310 and 2410 may both be speaking at the same timeor their speech may overlap during a conversation. Processor 210 mayselectively condition audio associated with one speaking individualrelative to others. This may include giving priority to a speaker whohas started but not finished a word or sentence or has not finishedspeaking altogether when the other speaker started speaking. Thisdetermination may also be driven by the context of the speech, asdescribed above.

Various other factors may also be considered in selecting among activespeakers. For example, a look direction of the user may be determinedand the individual in the look direction of the user may be given higherpriority among the active speakers. Priority may also be assigned basedon the look direction of the speakers. For example, if individual 2310is looking at user 100 and individual 2410 is looking elsewhere, audiosignals associated with individual 2310 may be selectively conditioned.In some embodiments, priority may be assigned based on the relativebehavior of other individuals in environment 2400. For example, if bothindividual 2310 and individual 2410 are speaking and more otherindividuals are looking at individual 2410 than individual 2310, audiosignals associated with individual 2410 may be selectively conditionedover those associated with individual 2310. In embodiments where theidentity of the individuals is determined, priority may be assignedbased on the relative status of the speakers, as discussed previously ingreater detail. User 100 may also provide input into which speakers areprioritized through predefined settings or by actively selecting whichspeaker to focus on.

Processor 210 may also assign priority based on how the representationof individual 2310 is detected. While individuals 2310 and 2410 areshown to be physically present in environment 2400, one or moreindividuals may be detected as visual representations of the individual(e.g., on a display device) as shown in FIG. 23B. Processor 210 mayprioritize speakers based on whether or not they are physically presentin environment 2400. For example, processor 210 may prioritize speakerswho are physically present over speakers on a display. Alternatively,processor 210 may prioritize a video over speakers in a room, forexample, if user 100 is on a video conference or if user 100 is watchinga movie. The prioritized speaker or speaker type (e.g. present or not)may also be indicated by user 100, using a user interface associatedwith apparatus 110.

FIG. 25 is a flowchart showing an exemplary process 2500 for selectivelyamplifying audio signals based on tracked lip movements consistent withdisclosed embodiments. Process 2500 may be performed by one or moreprocessors associated with apparatus 110, such as processor 210. Theprocessor(s) may be included in the same common housing as microphone1720 and camera 1730, which may also be used for process 2500. In someembodiments, some or all of process 2500 may be performed on processorsexternal to apparatus 110, which may be included in a second housing.For example, one or more portions of process 2500 may be performed byprocessors in hearing interface device 1710, or in an auxiliary device,such as computing device 120 or display device 2301. In suchembodiments, the processor may be configured to receive the capturedimages via a wireless link between a transmitter in the common housingand receiver in the second housing.

In step 2510, process 2500 may include receiving a plurality of imagescaptured by a wearable camera from an environment of the user. Theimages may be captured by a wearable camera such as camera 1730 ofapparatus 110. In step 2520, process 2500 may include identifying arepresentation of at least one individual in at least one of theplurality of images. The individual may be identified using variousimage detection algorithms, such as Haar cascade, histograms of orientedgradients (HOG), deep convolution neural networks (CNN), scale-invariantfeature transform (SIFT), or the like. In some embodiments, processor210 may be configured to detect visual representations of individuals,for example from a display device, as shown in FIG. 23B.

In step 2530, process 2500 may include identifying at least one lipmovement or lip position associated with a mouth of the individual,based on analysis of the plurality of images. Processor 210 may beconfigured to identify one or more points associated with the mouth ofthe individual. In some embodiments, processor 210 may develop a contourassociated with the mouth of the individual, which may define a boundaryassociated with the mouth or lips of the individual. The lips identifiedin the image may be tracked over multiple frames or images to identifythe lip movement. Accordingly, processor 210 may use various videotracking algorithms, as described above.

In step 2540, process 2500 may include receiving audio signalsrepresentative of the sounds captured by a microphone from theenvironment of the user. For example, apparatus 110 may receive audiosignals representative of sounds 2421, 2422, and 2423 captured bymicrophone 1720. In step 2550, process 2500 may include identifying,based on analysis of the sounds captured by the microphone, a firstaudio signal associated with a first voice and a second audio signalassociated with a second voice different from the first voice. Forexample, processor 210 may identify an audio signal associated withsounds 2421 and 2422, representing the voice of individuals 2310 and2410, respectively. Processor 210 may analyze the sounds received frommicrophone 1720 to separate the first and second voices using anycurrently known or future developed techniques or algorithms. Step 2550may also include identifying additional sounds, such as sound 2423 whichmay include additional voices or background noise in the environment ofthe user. In some embodiments, processor 210 may perform furtheranalysis on the first and second audio signals, for example, bydetermining the identity of individuals 2310 and 2410 using availablevoiceprints thereof. Alternatively, or additionally, processor 210 mayuse speech recognition tools or algorithms to recognize the speech ofthe individuals.

In step 2560, process 2500 may include causing selective conditioning ofthe first audio signal based on a determination that the first audiosignal is associated with the identified lip movement associated withthe mouth of the individual. Processor 210 may compare the identifiedlip movement with the first and second audio signals identified in step2550. For example, processor 210 may compare the timing of the detectedlip movements with the timing of the voice patterns in the audiosignals. In embodiments where speech is detected, processor 210 mayfurther compare specific lip movements to phonemes or other featuresdetected in the audio signal, as described above. Accordingly, processor210 may determine that the first audio signal is associated with thedetected lip movements and is thus associated with an individual who isspeaking.

Various forms of selective conditioning may be performed, as discussedabove. In some embodiments, conditioning may include changing the toneor playback speed of an audio signal. For example, conditioning mayinclude remapping the audio frequencies or changing a rate of speechassociated with the audio signal. In some embodiments, the conditioningmay include amplification of a first audio signal relative to otheraudio signals. Amplification may be performed by various means, such asoperation of a directional microphone, varying one or more parametersassociated with the microphone, or digitally processing the audiosignals. The conditioning may include attenuating or suppressing one ormore audio signals that are not associated with the detected lipmovement. The attenuated audio signals may include audio signalsassociated with other sounds detected in the environment of the user,including other voices such as a second audio signal. For example,processor 210 may selectively attenuate the second audio signal based ona determination that the second audio signal is not associated with theidentified lip movement associated with the mouth of the individual. Insome embodiments, the processor may be configured to transition fromconditioning of audio signals associated with a first individual toconditioning of audio signals associated with a second individual whenidentified lip movements of the first individual indicates that thefirst individual has finished a sentence or has finished speaking.

In step 2570, process 2500 may include causing transmission of theselectively conditioned first audio signal to a hearing interface deviceconfigured to provide sound to an ear of the user. The conditioned audiosignal, for example, may be transmitted to hearing interface device1710, which may provide sound corresponding to the first audio signal touser 100. Additional sounds such as the second audio signal may also betransmitted. For example, processor 210 may be configured to transmitaudio signals corresponding to sounds 2421, 2422, and 2423. The firstaudio signal, which may be associated with the detected lip movement ofindividual 2310, may be amplified, however, in relation to sounds 2422and 2423 as described above. In some embodiments, hearing interface 1710device may include a speaker associated with an earpiece. For example,hearing interface device may be inserted at least partially into the earof the user for providing audio to the user. Hearing interface devicemay also be external to the ear, such as a behind-the-ear hearingdevice, one or more headphones, a small portable speaker, or the like.In some embodiments, hearing interface device may include a boneconduction microphone, configured to provide an audio signal to userthrough vibrations of a bone of the user's head. Such devices may beplaced in contact with the exterior of the user's skin, or may beimplanted surgically and attached to the bone of the user.

Systems and Methods for Emphasizing a User's Name

The “cocktail party effect” relates to the brain's ability to focusone's auditory attention on a particular stimulus while filtering out arange of other stimuli. For example, consider the situation where apartygoer can focus on a single conversation in a noisy room, but canstill hear his or her name being spoken over other noise and over aconversation he is participating in. A person with hearing difficulty,however, may not hear his or her name being spoken by another speaker,because the spoken name may blend with the surrounding noise, or mayhave been spoken in too low of a voice. Furthermore, if the user isusing an apparatus such as apparatus 110, the background noise may beattenuated so the user may not hear his name being called. This mayhappen, for example, when the user is not involved in any conversation,or when the user is involved in a conversation with a person other thanthe one who called him or her.

Consistent with the disclosed embodiments, apparatus 110 may performongoing word spotting of the acquired audio input, whether the audio isamplified, attenuated or silenced. For example, the spotted words mayinclude words related to potential dangers, such as “attention,” or theuser's name. When these words are mentioned, apparatus 110 may draw theuser's attention, for example by making a “beep” sound, vibrating thedevice, or in any other manner. Drawing the user's attention may beomitted if the name is pronounced by a person the user is speaking with,as may be deduced from the user's looking direction. Furthermore, thisfeature may be turned on and off in accordance with the user'sselection, as may be provided through a user interface, for exampleusing a mobile phone paired with the device.

In some embodiments, user 100 may wear a wearable apparatus forprocessing audio signals (e.g., similar to the camera-based hearing aiddevice discussed above). As discussed earlier, FIGS. 4A 4K illustrate anembodiment of wearable apparatus 110 securable to an article of clothingof a user. Consistent with the disclosed embodiments, apparatus 110 maybe positioned in other locations, as described previously. For example,apparatus 110 may be physically connected to a shirt, a necklace, abelt, glasses, a wrist strap, a button, etc. Apparatus 110 may beconfigured to communicate with a hearing aid device (e.g., 230, 1710,etc.) similar to the camera-based hearing aid device discussed above. Inone embodiment, the hearing aid device may include one or more speakersfor providing audible feedback to user 100, a communication unit forreceiving signals from another system, such as apparatus 110,microphones for detecting sounds in the environment of user 100,internal electronics, processors, memories, etc. In some embodiments,the hearing aid device may correspond to feedback outputting unit 230 ormay be separate from feedback outputting unit 230 and may be configuredto receive signals from feedback outputting unit 230.

In some embodiments, the hearing aid device may be placed in one or bothears of user 100, similar to traditional hearing interface devices. Inother embodiments, hearing aid device may comprise a bone conductionheadphone that may be surgically implanted and may provide audiblefeedback to user 100 through bone conduction of sound vibrations to theinner ear. In other embodiments, the hearing aid device may be ofvarious styles, including in-the-canal, completely-in-canal, in-the-ear,behind-the-ear, on-the-ear, receiver-in-canal, open fit, or variousother styles. The hearing aid device may also comprise one or moreheadphones (e.g., wireless headphones, over-ear headphones, etc.) or aportable speaker carried or worn by user 100. In some embodiments,hearing aid device may be integrated into other devices, such as aBluetooth™ headset of the user, glasses, a helmet (e.g., motorcyclehelmets, bicycle helmets, etc.), a hat, etc. However, in someembodiments the wearable apparatus may comprise or connect to a speakerrather than communicate with a hearing aid interface.

In some embodiments, the wearable apparatus may include an image sensorconfigured to capture a plurality of images from an environment of auser. By way of example, apparatus 110 may comprise one or more cameras,such as camera 1730, which may correspond to image sensor 220. Camera1730 may be configured to capture images of the surrounding environmentof user 100. It is contemplated that image sensor 220 may be associatedwith a variety of cameras, for example, a wide angle camera, a narrowangle camera, an IR camera, etc. In some embodiments, the camera mayinclude a video camera. The one or more cameras may be configured tocapture images from the surrounding environment of user 100 and outputan image signal. For example, the one or more cameras may be configuredto capture individual still images or a series of images in the form ofa video. The one or more cameras may be configured to generate andoutput one or more image signals representative of the one or morecaptured images. In some embodiments, the image signal includes a videosignal. For example, when image sensor 220 is associated with a videocamera, the video camera may output a video signal representative of aseries of images captured as a video image by the video camera.

In some embodiments the wearable apparatus may include a microphoneconfigured to capture sounds from the environment of the user. Asdiscussed above, apparatus 110 may also include one or more microphonesto receive one or more sounds associated with the environment of user100. By way of example, apparatus 110 may comprise microphones 443, 444,as described with respect to FIGS. 4F and 4G. Microphones 443 and 444may be configured to obtain environmental sounds and voices of variousspeakers communicating with user 100 and output one or more audiosignals. As another example, apparatus 110 may comprise microphone 1720,as described with respect to FIG. 17B. Microphone 1720 may be configuredto determine a directionality of sounds in the environment of user 100.For example, microphones 443, 444, 1720, etc., may comprise one or moredirectional microphones, a microphone array, a multi-port microphone, orthe like. The microphones shown in FIGS. 4F, 4G, 17B, etc., are by wayof example only, and any suitable number, configuration, or location ofmicrophones may be used.

In some embodiments, the wearable apparatus may include at least oneprocessor. By way of example, as discussed above, apparatus 110 mayinclude processor 210 (see FIG. 5A). As also discussed above, processor210 may include any physical device having an electric circuit thatperforms a logic operation on input or inputs. Processor 210 may beconfigured to control operations of the various components (e.g., camerasensor 220, microphones 442, 444, 1720, etc.). In some embodiments, theuser or his environment may be associated with one or more additionaldevices, such as computing device 120. Accordingly, one or more of theprocesses or functions described herein with respect to apparatus 110 orprocessor 210 may be performed by computing device 120 and/or processor540. Processors 210, 540 may include one or more integrated circuits,microchips, microcontrollers, microprocessors, all or part of a centralprocessing unit (CPU), graphics processing unit (GPU), digital signalprocessor (DSP), field programmable gate array (FPGA), or other circuitssuitable for executing instructions or performing logic operations.

In some embodiments, the at least one processor may be programmed toreceive at least one image from the plurality of images. In someembodiments, the at least one processor may also be programmed toreceive at least one audio signal representative of at least a part ofthe sounds captured by the at least one microphone. For example,processor 210 of apparatus 110 may receive one or more images capturedby the one or more cameras or image sensors 220 and one or more audiosignals captured by the one or more microphones 443, 444, or 1720.Processor 210 may be configured to analyze the captured images anddetect a recognized individual using various facial recognitiontechniques or voice recognition techniques. Accordingly, apparatus 110,or specifically memory 550, may comprise one or more facial or voicerecognition components as discussed above with reference to FIG. 20B.Although the following disclosure may refer to processor 210, it is tobe understood that processes performed by processor 210 may be performedin whole or in part by other processors such as processors 210 a, 210 b,540 discussed above.

As discussed above, FIG. 20B illustrates an exemplary embodiment ofapparatus 110 comprising facial and voice recognition componentsconsistent with the present disclosure. Apparatus 110 is shown in FIG.20B in a simplified form, and apparatus 110 may contain additionalelements or may have alternative configurations, for example, as shownin FIGS. 5A-5C. Memory 550 (or 550 a or 550 b) may include facialrecognition component 2040 and voice recognition component 2041. Thesecomponents may be instead of or in addition to orientationidentification module 601, orientation adjustment module 602, and motiontracking module 603 as shown in FIG. 6. Components 2040 and 2041 maycontain software instructions for execution by at least one processingdevice, e.g., processor 210, included with a wearable apparatus.Components 2040 and 2041 are shown within memory 550 by way of exampleonly, and may be located in other locations within the system. Forexample, components 2040 and 2041 may be located in a hearing aiddevice, in computing device 120, on a remote server, or in anotherassociated device.

In some embodiments, the at least one processor may be programmed toidentify at least one word in the at least one audio signal. By way ofexample, FIG. 26 illustrates an exemplary environment 2600 of user 100consistent with the present disclosure. As illustrated in FIG. 26,environment 2600 may include user 100, individual 2610, and/orindividual 2620. User 100 may be interacting with one or more ofindividuals 2610 and 2620, for example, conversing with one or more ofindividuals 2610 and 2620. One or both individuals 2610 and 2620 mayalso speak during the conversation with user 100. Although only twoindividuals 2610 and 2620 are illustrated in FIG. 26A, it should beunderstood that environment 2600 may include any number of users and/orother individuals, pets, objects, etc. Processor 210 may receive anaudio signal representative of sounds including one or more of speech byuser 100, speech by individual 2610, speech by individual 2620, and/orother sounds such as 2652 in environment 2600. Thus, for example, asillustrated in FIGS. 27A and 27B, processor 210 may receive audio signal2702 that may include one or more of audio signals 103, 2614, 2624associated with user 100, individual 2610, individual 2620,respectively, and/or audio signals associated with sounds 2652.Processor 210 may be configured to identify one or more words in audiosignal 2702.

Processor 210 may identify one or more words in audio signal 2702 inmany ways. For example, processor 210 may be configured to recognize oneor more words in the captured audio signal based for example on smallvocabulary word spotting, on-going transcription, a combination thereof,or the like. Processor 210 may be configured to recognize the wordsspoken by individual 2310 using various speech-to-text algorithms. Insome embodiments, the at least one processor may be programmed toidentify the at least one word by extracting the at least one word fromthe audio signal. By way of example, voice recognition component 2041may include one or more sound recognition modules. Processor 210 may beconfigured to execute one or more of the sound recognition modules toprocess at least a portion of a received audio signal (e.g., audiosignal 2702 in FIG. 27A) to extract one or more words. Such processingmay include converting the captured sound data into an appropriateformat for storage or further processing. In some embodiments, the oneor more sound processing modules may allow processor 210 to convert oneor more spoken words to text, using any known speech-to-text process ortechnology.

In some embodiments, the at least one processor may be programmed toaccess a database to select one of more words stored in a database sothat the selected one or more words may be identified in the audiosignal. For example, processor 210 may access a database (e.g., database2050) that may store a plurality of words. Database 2050 may be storedin memory unit 550 of apparatus 110 and/or 120, and additionally oralternatively may be included in a remote server accessible over one ormore networks. The words stored in database 2050 may include words thatmay be used in conversations or may be based on past interactionsbetween user 100, and individuals 2610, 2620. The words may be stored ina database in text format or as pronounced. Processor 210 may beconfigured to select one or more words from the words stored in thedatabase, wherein the selected words are to be identified in audiosignal 2702. Processor 210 may be configured to select the one or morewords based on, for example, a frequency of occurrence in conversationsor based on a frequency of occurrence during past interactions betweenuser 100, and individuals 2610, 2620. It is also contemplated thatprocessor 210 may be configured to select the one or more words based ona set of rules that in some embodiments may also be stored in database2050. Processor 210 may be configured to identify the selected one ormore words in audio signal 2702. For example, processor 210 may beconfigured to compare the one or more words selected from database 2050with words in the audio signal. Processor 210 may also be configured toidentify the words in the audio signal that match with the one or morewords selected from database 2050.

In some other embodiments, the at least one processor may instead beprogrammed to first identify at least one word in audio signal 2702 asdescribed above and then compare the identified at least one word fromaudio signal 2702 with one or more words stored in database 2050. Insome embodiments, the at least one processor may be configured toidentify the at least one word when the at least one word matches atleast one of the words stored in the database. By way of example,processor 210 may execute the one or more sound processing modules tocompare the words parsed from the sound data with words in database2050. Processor 210 may be configured to identify one or more words whenone or more of the words parsed from audio signal 2702 match one or morewords stored in database 2050.

In some embodiments, the at least one word may comprise a name of theuser. In some embodiments, the name may comprise at least one of a firstname, a last name, or a nickname of the user. For example, database 2050may store a name of user 100 as part of the words stored in database2050. It is also contemplated that database 2050 may store some or allof a first name, a middle name, a last name, or one or more nicknamesassociated with user 100. Processor 210 may be configured to identify aname (e.g., first, middle, last, nickname, etc.) of user 100 spoken byone or more of individuals 2610, 2620, etc., by searching for the wordsstored in database 2050 within the audio, or by comparing one or more ofthe extracted words with names stored in database 2050.

In some embodiments the words stored in the database may include a nameof the user spoken by each of a plurality of speakers. By way ofexample, database 2050 may store one or more audio signalsrepresentative of the name (e.g., first, middle, last, nickname, etc.)of user 100 spoken by, for example, user 100, individual 2610,individual 2620, or other speakers, etc. Processor 210 may be configuredto identify the one or more words (or name of user 100) by executing oneor more sound recognition modules to compare portions of audio signal2702 with the audio signals previously stored in database 2050.

In some embodiments, the at least one processor may be programmed toidentify the at least one word when the word is pronounced in apredetermined intonation. By way of example, processor 210 may beconfigured to compare intonations of portions of audio signal 2702 withintonations of the sound signals stored in database 2050. For example,processor 210 may be configured to compare a rise or fall in the pitchor level of voice in various portions of audio signal 2702 with rise orfall in sound signals stored in database 2050 to identify a requiredintonation of one or more words (e.g., name of user) in audio signal2702. It is contemplated that processor 210 may additionally oralternatively compare one or more of tone, pitch-range, pitch pattern,loudness, rhythmicality and/or tempo in portions of audio signal 2702with the sound signals stored in database 2050 to identify the one ormore words, including, for example, a name of user 100.

It is also contemplated that in some embodiments, processor 210 may beconfigured to identify the one or more words using a machine learningalgorithm or neural network that may be trained using training examples.Examples of such machine learning algorithms may include support vectormachines, Fisher's linear discriminant, nearest neighbor, k nearestneighbors, decision trees, random forests, neural networks, and soforth. By way of example, a set of training examples may include audiosamples having, for example, identified words. For example, the trainingexamples may include audio samples including one or more of a firstname, last name, nickname, etc., of user 100, spoken by a plurality ofspeakers. By way of another example, the training examples may includeaudio samples of the user's name or other words spoken in a variety ofintonations. It is contemplated that the machine learning algorithm orneural network may be trained to identify one or more words or namesbased on these and/or other training examples. It is furthercontemplated that the trained machine learning algorithm may beconfigured to output one or more identified words when presented withone or more audio signals (e.g., audio signal 2702) as inputs. It isalso contemplated that a trained neural network for identifying one ormore words may be a separate and distinct neural network or may be anintegral part of one or more other neural networks discussed above.

In some embodiments, the at least one word may comprise a predeterminedword indicating one of an emergency or a danger. Thus, for example,instead of or in addition to identifying a name of user 100, processor210 may be configured to identify words that may connote an emergency, adanger, or a potential danger. For example, such words may include“attention,” “fire,” “danger,” “evacuate,” etc. It is to be understoodthat these examples are non-limiting and the disclosed wearableapparatus, systems, and methods may identify additional or alternatewords that may be of interest.

In some embodiments, the at least one processor may be configured, inresponse to identifying the at least one word, to cause feedback to beprovided the user. By way of example, processor 210 may control feedbackoutputting unit 230 to provide feedback to user 100 based on theidentified word. As one example, when user 100 is present in a noisyenvironment, processor 210 may be configured to control feedbackoutputting unit 230 to alert user 100 when the user's name is spoken byone or more speakers (e.g., individual 2610, 2620, etc.) in environment2600 of user 100. By way of example, as illustrated in FIG. 26, user 100may be speaking with individuals 2610. User 100 may be facing individual2610 so that individual 2610 may be in a looking direction of user 100.Individual 2620 on the other hand may not be in the looking direction ofuser 100. When individual 2620, with whom user 100 may not be speakingand who may not be in a looking direction of user 100, calls out a nameof user 100, processor 210 may be configured to control feedbackoutputting unit 230 to alert user 100. When individual 2610, with whomuser 100 may be speaking and who may be in a looking direction of user100, calls out a name of user 100, processor 210 may be configured toforego providing any alert user 100. If the name of user 100 ismentioned in an amplified audio signal, processor 210 may also beconfigured to forego providing any alert user 100.

In some embodiments, causing the feedback to be provided to the user mayinclude transmitting information to a mobile device paired with thewearable apparatus. In some embodiments, causing the feedback to beprovided to the user may include transmitting information to a hearinginterface device paired with the wearable apparatus. In someembodiments, providing feedback to user 100 may comprise providing thefeedback via apparatus 110 and/or a secondary computing device (e.g.,device 120). For example, as discussed above, feedback outputting unit230 may include one or more systems for providing feedback to user 100.In some embodiments, the feedback may comprise at least one of anaudible, a visual, or a haptic indication.

For example, the audible or visual indication may be provided via anytype of connected audible or visual system or both. It is contemplatedthat the connected audible or visual system may be embodied in asecondary computing device. In some embodiments, the secondary computingdevice may include one of a hearing aid device worn by user 100, amobile device, a smartphone, a laptop computer, a desktop computer, asmart speaker, an in-home entertainment system, or an in-vehicleentertainment system. For example, audible indication may be provided touser 100 using a Bluetooth™ or other wired or wirelessly connectedspeaker, a smart speaker, an in-home or in-vehicle entertainment system,or a bone conduction headphone. In some embodiments, the audibleindication may comprise playing an audio file or segment. The audio fileor segment may include a predetermined sound. For example, thepredetermined sound may be a “beep,” a clip of music, or any other typeof alert or sound. It is contemplated that the audio file or segment mayinclude the identified word. For example, when it is necessary for theuser to evacuate environment 2600 because of fire, the audio file mayinclude the words “evacuate” or “fire” as discussed above. In anotherexample, an audio segment with the user's name may be played.

In some embodiments, the visual indication may comprise displaying avisual indicator on a device associated with the user. By way ofexample, feedback outputting unit 230 of some embodiments mayadditionally or alternatively produce a visible output of the indicationto user 100, for example, as part of an augmented reality displayprojected onto a lens of glasses 130 or provided via a separate heads updisplay in communication with apparatus 110, such as a display 260. Forexample, display 260 may provide a visual indication that may beprovided as part of computing device 120, which may include an onboardautomobile heads up display, an augmented reality device, a virtualreality device, a smartphone, a laptop, a desktop computer, tablet, etc.By way of another example, processor 210 may be configured to cause theindication to be displayed on a screen of a smartphone or tablet pairedwith wearable apparatus 110. The visual indication may include a symbol,an icon, or the identified word. For example, when the identified wordis related to an emergency or danger, the symbol or icon may representdanger. Additionally or alternatively, words like “danger,” “evacuate,”“fire,” etc., may be displayed on the screen when the identified word isrelated to an emergency or danger.

In some embodiments, the haptic indication may comprise vibrating thewearable apparatus or a mobile phone associated with the user. Forexample, feedback outputting unit 230 may include interfaces thatprovide tactile cues, vibrotactile stimulators, etc. for providing ahaptic indication to user 100. As also discussed above, in someembodiments, the secondary computing device (e.g., Bluetooth headphone,laptop, desktop computer, smartphone, etc.) may be configured to bewirelessly linked to apparatus 110 including the camera and themicrophone. It is contemplated that the haptic indication may includecausing the user's smartphone or apparatus 110 to vibrate to provide ahaptic indication to user 100.

FIG. 28 is a flowchart showing an exemplary process 2800 for processingaudio signals, including by providing an indication to the user when apredetermined word or the user's name is spoken by an individual in theuser's environment. Process 2800 may be performed by one or moreprocessors associated with apparatus 110, such as processor 210. In someembodiments, some or all of process 2800 may be performed on processorsexternal to apparatus 110. For example, one or more portions of process2800 may be performed by processors in hearing aid device 230, or in anauxiliary device, such as computing device 120, server 250, or asecondary user device.

In step 2802, process 2800 may include receiving at least one image froma plurality of images captured by an image sensor of a wearableapparatus. For example, the one or more images may be captured by awearable camera such as a camera including image sensor 220 of apparatus110 from an environment (e.g., 2600) of user 100. In step 2804, process2800 may include receiving at least one audio signal representative ofsounds captured by at least one microphone from the environment of theuser. For example, microphones 443, 444 may capture one or more soundsfrom an environment (e.g., 2600) of user 100. As discussed above,processor 210 may be configured to receive an audio signal that mayinclude one or more of audio signals 103, 2614, 2624 associated withuser 100, individual 2610, individual 2620, respectively, and/or audiosignals associated with sounds 2652.

In step 2806, process 2800 may include identifying at least one wordbased on the received at least one audio signal. For example, processor210 may be configured to identify one or more words in, for example,audio signal 2702. Processor 210 may be configured to recognize one ormore words in the captured audio signal based on, for example, ongoingtranscription, small vocabulary word spotting, a combination thereof, orthe like. Processor 210 may be configured to recognize the words spokenby individual 2310 using various speech-to-text algorithms. Processor210 may be configured to process at least a portion of a received audiosignal (e.g., audio signal 2702) to extract one or more words, forexample, using any known speech-to-text process or technology. Processor210 may access a database (e.g., database 2050) that may store aplurality of words. Processor 210 may select one or more words from theplurality of words stored in database 2050. As discussed above,processor 210 may be configured to select the one or more words based ona frequency of occurrence or based on rules stored, for example, indatabase 2050. Processor 210 may also be configured to compare the oneor more words selected from database 2050 with the words parsed from thesound data. Processor 210 may be configured to identify one or morewords in audio signal 2702 when one or more of the words selected fromdatabase 2050 matches one or more words extracted from audio signal2702. As also discussed above, in other embodiments, processor 210 mayinstead be configured to first extract one or more words from audiosignal 2702 and then compare the identified words with the words storedin database 2050. In this scenario, processor 210 may be configured toidentify the one or more extracted words when those words match one ormore words stored in database 2050. It is also contemplated that in someembodiments, processor 210 may identify one or more words in the audiosignal based on intonations and/or by using a trained machine learningor neural network model as described above.

In step 2808, process 2800 may include determining whether the user isspeaking with the person who spoke the identified word. For example,processor 210 may be configured to determine whether the individual withwhom user 100 is speaking spoke the identified word based on, forexample, the user's looking direction. For example, user 100 may beengages in a conversation with individual 2610 and/or individual 2620within environment 2600 and processor 210 may be configured to determinewhich of individuals 2610 or 2620 may have spoken the identified wordbased on the respective lip movements of individuals 2610 and/or 2620 ascan be analyzed from images received in, for example, step 2802.

For example, processor 210 may track lip movements associated with mouth2311 (see FIG. 23C) to determine that individual 2610 or 2620 isspeaking. A comparative analysis may be performed between the detectedlip movement and the received audio signals. In some embodiments,processor 210 may determine that individual 2610 or 2620 is speakingbased on a determination that mouth 2311 is moving at the same time asaudio signal 2614 or 2624, respectively, is detected. In someembodiments, processor 210 may be configured to determine whetherspecific movements of mouth 2311 correspond to the received audiosignal. For example, processor 210 may analyze the received audio signal2702 or 2704 to identify specific phonemes, phoneme combinations orwords in the received audio signal. Processor 210 may recognize whetherspecific lip movements of mouth 2311 correspond to the identified wordsor phonemes. Various machine learning or deep learning techniques may beimplemented to correlate the expected lip movements to the detectedaudio. For example, a training data set of known sounds andcorresponding lip movements may be fed to a machine learning algorithmto develop a model for correlating detected sounds with expected lipmovements.

Other data associated with apparatus 110 may further be used inconjunction with the detected lip movement to determine and/or verifywhether individual 2610 or 2620 is speaking, such as a look direction ofuser 100. For example, processor 210 may be configured to determine auser look direction 1750 of user 100 (see e.g., FIG. 17A). In someembodiments, user look direction 1750 may be tracked by monitoring adirection of the chin, or another body part or face part of user 100relative to an optical axis of a camera sensor 1751. Processor 210 maybe configured to capture one or more images of the surroundingenvironment of user, for example, using image sensor 220. The capturedimages may include a representation of a chin of user 100, which may beused to determine user look direction 1750. Processor 210 (and/orprocessors 210 a and 210 b) may be configured to analyze the capturedimages and detect the chin or another part of user 100 using variousimage detection or processing algorithms (e.g., using convolutionalneural networks (CNN), scale-invariant feature transform (SIFT),histogram of oriented gradients (HOG) features, or other techniques).Based on the detected representation of a chin of user 100, lookdirection 1750 may be determined. Look direction 1750 may be determinedin part by comparing the detected representation of a chin of user 100to an optical axis of a camera sensor 1751. For example, the opticalaxis 1751 may be known or fixed in each image and processor 210 maydetermine look direction 1750 by comparing a representative angle of thechin of user 100 to the direction of optical axis 1751. While theprocess is described using a representation of a chin of user 100,various other features may be detected for determining user lookdirection 1750, including the user's face, nose, eyes, hand, etc. Inother embodiments, user look direction 1750 may be aligned more closelywith the optical axis 1751. For example, as discussed above, apparatus110 may be affixed to a pair of glasses of user 100, as shown in FIG.1A. In this embodiment, user look direction 1750 may be the same as orclose to the direction of optical axis 1751. Accordingly, user lookdirection 1750 may be determined or approximated based on the view ofimage sensor 220. Processor 210 may determine whether individual 2610 or2620 in the user look direction 1750 has spoken the identified wordbased on the lip tracking and other techniques described above.

When processor 210 determines that user 100 is speaking with the person(e.g., individual 2610 or 2620) who spoke the identified word (e.g.,user's name) (Step 2808: Yes), processor 210 may be configured toproceed to step 2810. By way of example, as illustrated in FIG. 27B,processor 210 may determine that individual 2610 may have spoken thename “JON” of user 100 based on an analysis of audio signal 2702. Asillustrated in FIG. 27A, the name JON may be included in audio signal2614 associated with a speech of individual 2610. As further illustratedin FIG. 26, individual 2610 may be in a looking direction of user 100.In step 2810, process 2800 may include foregoing providing feedback tothe user. Thus, for example, when processor 210 determines that theidentified word (e.g. user's name, JON, etc.) was spoken by anindividual (e.g., 2610) with whom user 100 is speaking, processor 210may not provide any type of feedback or indication to user 100.

Returning to step 2808, when processor 210 determines, however, thatuser 100 is not speaking with the person (e.g., individual 2610 or 2620)who spoke the identified word (e.g., user's name) (Step 2808: No),processor 210 may be configured to proceed to step 2812. In step 2812,process 2800 may include determining whether the user has turned theindication feature on or off. For example, user 100 may activate one ormore input devices (e.g. buttons, touch pads, switches, voice controls,etc.) on apparatus 110 or a secondary device 120 to provide an input toprocessor 210 to turn on or off the indication feature. By way ofexample, a mobile phone or smartphone associated with user 100 andpaired with apparatus 110 may include one or more input devices that mayallow user 100 to turn the indication feature on or off.

In step 2812, when processor 210 determines that the indication featurehas been turned on (Step 2812: ON), for example, based on the inputprovided by user, processor 210 may proceed to step 2814. In step 2814,process 2800 may include providing feedback to the user. By way ofexample, processor 210 may control feedback outputting unit 230 toprovide feedback to user 100 based on the identified word. As oneexample, when user 100 is present in a noisy environment, processor 210may be configured to control feedback outputting unit 230 to alert user100 when the user's name is spoken by one or more speakers inenvironment 2600 of user 100 with whom user 100 is not speaking. By wayof example, as illustrated in FIG. 27A, processor 210 may determine thatindividual 2620 may have spoken the name “JON” of user 100 based on ananalysis of audio signal 2702. As illustrated in FIG. 27A, the name JONmay be included in audio signal 2624 associated with a speech ofindividual 2620. As further illustrated in FIG. 26, individual 2620 maynot be in a looking direction of user 100. Thus, processor 210 maydetermine that the word “JON” has been spoken by individual 2620 withwhom user 100 is not speaking. In this situation, processor 210 may beconfigured to provide an audible, visual, or haptic feedback orindication to user 100.

In some embodiments, providing feedback to user 100 may includeproviding the feedback via a secondary computing device. For example, asdiscussed above, feedback outputting unit 230 may include one or moresystems for providing feedback to user 100. For example, the audible orvisual indication may be provided via any type of connected audible orvisual system or both. It is contemplated that the connected audible orvisual system may be embodied in a secondary computing device. In someembodiments, the secondary computing device may include one of a hearingaid device worn by user 100, a mobile device, a smartphone, a laptopcomputer, a desktop computer, a smart speaker, an in-home entertainmentsystem, an in-vehicle entertainment system, or the like. For example,audible indication may be provided to user 100 using a Bluetooth™ orother wired or wirelessly connected speaker, a smart speaker, an in-homeor in-vehicle entertainment system, a bone conduction headphone, or thelike. As another example, a visual indication may be provided bydisplaying an icon, symbol, or text on an augmented reality displayprojected onto a lens of glasses 130, a separate heads up display incommunication with apparatus 110, such as a display 260, or on a displayscreen of computing device 120 (e.g., on a screen or a mobile phone orsmartphone).

Returning to step 2812, when processor 210 determines, however, that theindication feature has been turned off (Step 2812: OFF), for example,based on the input provided by user, processor 210 may proceed to step2810 in which no feedback is provided to user 100.

In some embodiments, if the word such as the user's name is identifiedrepeatedly in speech of the same person with whom the user is notspeaking, within a predetermined period of time, for example 1 second, 1minute, 10 minutes or the like, processor 210 may proceed to step 2810in which no feedback is provided to user 100.

The foregoing description has been presented for purposes ofillustration. It is not exhaustive and is not limited to the preciseforms or embodiments disclosed. Modifications and adaptations will beapparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of thespecification and practice of the disclosed embodiments. Additionally,although aspects of the disclosed embodiments are described as beingstored in memory, one skilled in the art will appreciate that theseaspects can also be stored on other types of computer readable media,such as secondary storage devices, for example, hard disks or CD ROM, orother forms of RAM or ROM, USB media, DVD, Blu-ray, Ultra HD Blu-ray, orother optical drive media.

Computer programs based on the written description and disclosed methodsare within the skill of an experienced developer. The various programsor program modules can be created using any of the techniques known toone skilled in the art or can be designed in connection with existingsoftware. For example, program sections or program modules can bedesigned in or by means of .Net Framework, .Net Compact Framework (andrelated languages, such as Visual Basic, C, etc.), Java, C++,Objective-C, HTML, HTML/AJAX combinations, XML, or HTML with includedJava applets.

Moreover, while illustrative embodiments have been described herein, thescope of any and all embodiments having equivalent elements,modifications, omissions, combinations (e.g., of aspects across variousembodiments), adaptations and/or alterations as would be appreciated bythose skilled in the art based on the present disclosure. Thelimitations in the claims are to be interpreted broadly based on thelanguage employed in the claims and not limited to examples described inthe present specification or during the prosecution of the application.The examples are to be construed as non-exclusive. Furthermore, thesteps of the disclosed methods may be modified in any manner, includingby reordering steps and/or inserting or deleting steps. It is intended,therefore, that the specification and examples be considered asillustrative only, with a true scope and spirit being indicated by thefollowing claims and their full scope of equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A wearable apparatus for processing audiosignals, the system comprising: a microphone configured to capturesounds from an environment of a user; and at least one processorprogrammed to: receive at least one audio signal representative of atleast part of the sounds captured by the microphone; identify at leastone word in the at least one audio signal; and in response toidentifying the at least one word, cause feedback to be provided theuser.
 2. The wearable apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least oneword comprises a name of the user.
 3. The wearable apparatus of claim 1,wherein causing the feedback to be provided to the user includestransmitting information to a mobile device paired with the wearableapparatus.
 4. The wearable apparatus of claim 1, wherein causing thefeedback to be provided to the user includes transmitting information toa hearing interface device paired with the wearable apparatus.
 5. Thewearable apparatus of claim 1, wherein the feedback comprises at leastone of an audible, a visual, or a haptic indication.
 6. The wearableapparatus of claim 5, wherein the haptic indication comprises vibratingthe wearable apparatus or a mobile phone associated with the user. 7.The wearable apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one wordcomprises a predetermined word indicating one of an emergency or adanger.
 8. The wearable apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least oneprocessor is programmed to identify the at least one word by: selectingthe at least one word from a plurality of words stored in a database;comparing the selected at least one word with the audio signal; andidentifying a word in the audio signal that matches the at least oneword selected from the database.
 9. The wearable apparatus of claim 1,wherein the at least one processor is programmed to identify the atleast one word by: extracting the at least one word from the audiosignal; comparing the at least one word with one or more words stored ina database; and identifying the at least one word when the at least oneword matches at least one of the words stored in the database.
 10. Thewearable apparatus of claim 9, wherein the words stored in the databaseinclude a name of the user spoken by each of a plurality of speakers orat least one word pronounced in a predetermined intonation.
 11. Thewearable apparatus of claim 1, further including: an image sensorconfigured to capture a plurality of images from the environment of theuser, wherein the processor is further programmed to: receive at leastone image from the plurality of images; determine a person the user isspeaking with based on the at least one image, and identify at least oneword subject to the at least one word is not spoken by the person theuser is speaking with.
 12. A method of processing audio signals, themethod comprising: receiving at least one audio signal representative ofsounds captured by at least one microphone from the environment of theuser; identifying at least one word based on the received at least oneaudio signal; in response to identifying the at least one word,providing feedback to the user.
 13. The method of claim 14, wherein theat least one word comprises one of a name of the user or a predeterminedword indicating an emergency or a danger.
 14. The method of claim 14,wherein providing the indication includes at least one of playing anaudio file or segment, vibrating a wearable device or a mobile phoneassociated with the user, or displaying a visual indicator on a deviceassociated with the user.
 15. The method of claim 14, whereinidentifying the at least one word comprises: extracting the at least oneword from the audio signal; comparing the extracted at least one wordwith one or more words stored in a database; and identifying the atleast one word when the extracted at least one word matches at least oneof the words stored in the database.
 16. A non-transitorycomputer-readable medium including instructions which when executed byat least one processor perform a method, the method comprising:receiving at least one audio signal representative of sounds captured byat least one microphone from the environment of the user; identifying atleast one word based on the received at least one audio signal; inresponse to identifying the at least one word, providing feedback to theuser.
 17. A method of processing audio signals, the method comprising:receiving at least one audio signal representative of sounds captured byat least one microphone from the environment of the user; identifying atleast one word based on the received at least one audio signal;determining a feedback condition in response to identifying the at leastone word; determining whether to provide feedback to the user based onthe feedback condition.
 18. The method of claim 19, wherein the feedbackcondition indicates whether the at least one word was spoken by a personthe user is speaking to.
 19. The method of claim 17, further comprising:receiving at least one image from a plurality of images captured by animage sensor from an environment of a user; identify a person the useris speaking to based on the at least one image; and determining toprovide feedback to the user subject at least to the at least one wordnot spoken by the identified person.
 20. The method of claim 20, furthercomprising: providing the feedback to the user after determining thatthe at least one word was not spoken by the person the user is speakingwith; and foregoing providing the feedback to the user after determiningthat the at least one word was spoken by the person the user is speakingwith.
 21. The method of claim 19, wherein the determining the feedbackcondition includes receiving an input indicating whether the user hasturned an indication feature on or off.
 22. The method of claim 22,further comprising: providing the feedback to the user when the user hasturned on the indication feature; and foregoing providing the feedbackwhen the user has turned off the indication feature.